


Believing Is Seeing

by Melissae



Series: January Jackrabbit Week 2014 [6]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Fluff, Jackrabbit Week, M/M, Modern AU, Olympics AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-05
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-01-11 05:55:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 34,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1169503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melissae/pseuds/Melissae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack skates short track, but he plays the long game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Haha, so this fic took some doing to get to this point. I initially started with "Confessions", then my computer restarted and I lost it. I moped for a while, then decided to get started on "Olympics/AU" instead. So I watched short track speedskating all weekend and did lots of research and looked at Easter charts and next thing I knew, this was no longer a ficlet. So this won't be an especially long fic, but it will be chaptered. I can't guarantee every day updates like last time, but they should be fairly swift.
> 
> I had to decide between this fic and a human AU where they were all Olympians. Sadly, once the Olympics start in a few days, I might find myself doing both. Fair warning.
> 
> Note on Jack's sister's name: I'm not entirely sure where the "Emma" fanon came from, but hey! It's a cute name. I'll roll with it. :)
> 
> Extra note: Unbetaed. I did some research on skating, but I'm gonna be real with you. I use a cane to stand at the best of times; skating is not really one of my skills. lol. So if any of you skate and you spot mistakes, feel free to give me a holler! <3

When Jack woke up that morning, he knew without a doubt that something important was going to happen. There was a thrill of anticipation deep in his bones that caused him to throw his covers off without a second thought and roll out of bed. He yelped as his feet hit chilly floorboards, and dressed quickly to avoid freezing. The heater was on full blast, but it was an old house. It still got chilly during the winter, and this particular winter felt like it was going to last forever. 

Even though it was (an admittedly early) Easter, a thick layer of snow still coated the ground. Jack had a feeling that the Easter egg hunt later that day might run into some trouble, but he wasn't really sure he wanted to go anyway. Now that he was almost twelve, he was starting to get a little too old for baby stuff like the Easter Bunny. But his mom would probably make him take Emma...

He sighed and looked at the clock. Just after seven. He had eons before they had to leave for the egg hunt. There was more than enough time for him to sneak out and go skating. Even though it was almost the end of March, the lake near their house was still frozen solid, and for some reason, skating was exactly what he wanted to do today.

He crept down the stairs as quietly as possible. He grabbed his skates from the hall closet and was almost at the front door when--"Jack!"

He turned around to see his sister behind him. She was still in her pajamas, blue with red robots on them, and she was rubbing at her eyes. "Jack, you're not going skating, are you? Mama says it's too late in the year to go skating," she said, a hint of something accusatory in her small voice.

Jack sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "It's not _that_ late, Emma..."

"Jaaaack," she whined, but she had a light in her eyes that Jack recognized after more than eight long years dealing with it.

"Look," he said entreatingly, "If I take you with me, will you be quiet?"

Bingo. Suddenly, she was all smiles. "Sure! Let me get on my boots!"

It took awhile for him to get her properly dressed, but it wasn't much more than a half hour later that they arrived at the little lake. It wasn't that deep, but even shallow water could be dangerous this time of year. Jack gave the ice an appraising look, but he couldn't see any signs of thinning. "Looks good," he said, flashing a grin at his sister, and walked over to help her lace her skates up.

Soon enough, they were both gliding over frozen ice. Emma was still a little wobbly, but she hadn't been skating for as long as Jack had. He could quite literally skate circles around his little sister--or he could before his mom made him stop. He skated with a natural speed and grace that made his parents look sideways at each other. He'd heard them talking one evening about maybe scraping up the money to get him lessons at a real rink. He hadn't said anything about it, though. Maybe they were saving it for his birthday.

Lost in thoughts of his maybe present, Jack didn't notice that Emma had stopped skating until he heard a sickening crack. Before he even turned to see, he knew what it was. He'd heard that sound only once before, and he'd hoped to never hear it again.

Sure enough, his sister was perched at the apex of a series of cracks that radiated outwards away from her. Even from his position at the other end of the lake, he could see that she was trying not to cry.

He skated as close to her as he possibly could and scanned the ice for anything he could use to grab her. He noticed a large stick not too far away and edged towards it. He had a plan, but it wasn't a good one. As far as he could tell, only one of them was going to get out of this one, and it didn't take him more than a second to figure out which of them it would be. She was his little sister, too young to be gone so quickly, and it was his fault that she was out here in the first place. There was no way he could let her fall through the ice.

"Hey Emma," Jack said, picking up the stick. "Do you want to play a little game?"

"A game? What do you--"

"Just a little game. Just hop, like this," he said, gesturing down to his feet. "Just one," he said, taking a little step, careful not to break the ice further. "Two," he said, waving at her to come closer. "Three!" he said, and when she stepped towards him, he swung out with the stick, pulling Emma towards him as he fell forward to take her place.

"Jack?" Emma's voice was high and frightened.

"It's okay, Emma, really. Go home and get mom and dad. They can help." He wasn't sure how, but he didn't want her to see this. He had to be the big brother now, help Emma out when she needed him, just like his parents had always told him.

"O-okay," she stammered out, then ran back to the banks and took off, stumbling only long enough to tear her skates off before she ran in stockinged feet back in the direction of their house.

He watched her go, and felt the ice shift.

"Oi! What do you think you're doing out there?"

Jack looked up at the sound of a heavily accented voice, but before he could see its owner, the ice opened up beneath him. He couldn't hear anything after that.

* * *

For years after that, his parents tried to find answers about what had happened that day between the time when Emma had run home to get them and they had arrived to find their unconscious son spread out by the side of the lake, warm, dry, and inexplicably changed.

"What happened to your hair, Jack?" How could a healthy preteen boy's hair turn pure white? How could his _eyes_ change color to match?

Jack felt like he'd been asked that question by dozens of different doctors, and when he'd answered it, they'd started sending him to a wholly different kind of doctor. "It was the moon," he'd said. "And the Easter Bunny. The Easter Bunny dove into the lake and saved me, and then he asked the moon to help me. And he did." 

And it had been as simple as that, really. To this day, though, Jack had yet to find a single person who believed him. Even Emma had to admit that she had seen no one around the lake before Jack had fallen through the ice. No voice. No rabbit. No moon.

Jack knew what he had seen, though. He had wondered a few times if maybe he had made it up in some kind of frozen delirium. After all, there was no reason for the moon to be out in the middle of the morning and giant rabbits didn't exist. But he didn't think there was any way to make up that rich voice calling out desperately for the moon's help, or the feeling of sodden fur that still somehow exuded warmth as it pressed against his chest. Those memories were too vivid. Sometimes he could still feel that touch against his skin.

As he got older, however, he learned to stop talking about it. No one wanted to hear about giant rabbits and a magical moon. So he lied, shook his head, said he didn't remember. And eventually, they had to accept it. He was put down in the books as a medical miracle. His therapist told his parents that maybe they should try to find him a good outlet for these obviously muddled feelings.

And that was how he found himself a part of the local speedskating team. It was the one good thing that had come out of the whole debacle, in his opinion. His sister still refused to go anywhere near ice, he still had nightmares about inky black water, and he'd heard enough of his parents' tears to last several lifetimes. But at least he had this. The minute he laid foot on the rink, he knew somehow, deeply, intrinsically, that he had come home. And he was _good_. He started winning competitions, and for better or for worse, that therapist's advice bore fruit. Jack, for the first time in his life, felt centered.

* * *

The year Jack turned eighteen, Easter came early again. And against every ounce of better judgment he possessed, he found himself out on that lake again, skating alone in the still, frigid morning. He knew how stupid he was being, and how his mom would have about six conniptions at the mere thought of him doing this again after what happened last time, but there was something restless in his bones that caused him to ignore all common sense and tug on his skates.

He skated on the ice slowly, meditatively. The ice was a lot rougher than he remembered, but maybe he was just used to smoother ice now. _Safer ice,_ his common sense reminded him, and he shoved it down ruthlessly. In all honesty, he knew where this small rebellion was coming from. He would be graduating from high school soon and this was maybe the last chance he had to understand what had really happened to him all those years ago. And if he were really truthful with himself, he'd admit that he was hoping to catch a glimpse of long, gray ears.

Jack was just about an adult nowadays. He knew very well that things like the Easter Bunny weren't supposed to exist. No one his age actually believed in the Easter Bunny. But he couldn't let go of a fading memory tinged with frost and the scent of coming spring. No, he wasn't quite ready to give up on the rabbit quite yet.

He was just starting to skate backwards, a habit that had not been encouraged by his mother, when he heard it.

"Bloody show pony."

Jack was so startled that he nearly fell on his rear end right there in the middle of the lake. He knew that voice. He _knew_ that voice! He skidded to an unceremonious stop and looked around wildly for the source of the voice.

Sure enough, there was a figure standing off by a small copse of trees twirling something small and bright in his fingers. His _paws,_ Jack corrected, realizing with a start that there was actually a giant rabbit standing next to the edge of the lake. He was smaller than Jack remembered, or maybe Jack had grown, but he looked far more dangerous than Jack had envisioned as well. He only had half-remembered bits of sensory memory: wet fur, tickling whiskers, warm breath on the back of his neck. He didn't remember the designs that curled through the rabbits fur, he didn't remember piercing green eyes, and he certainly didn't remember the weaponry. "Oh my god."

The rabbit started, then looked around as if there were some other onlooker that Jack could be staring at. "Wait," it said, then hopped (hopped!) closer to the bank. "You can see me?"

"Of course I can!" Jack said. His voice was just a little bit too loud, too high-pitched, but really, who could blame him? It was the goddamn Easter Bunny!

"No, that's not right," the rabbit said, and after a moment Jack realized that he was talking to himself. "He shouldn't be able to see us at this age."

"What are you talking about?" Jack cut in. "Wait, 'us'?"

The rabbit blanched as best he could. "Now you just forget about that one, you flighty little yobbo," he said, scowling. "Aren't you a little old to believe in the Easter Bunny?"

Jack was fairly sure that his face did something complicated at that. The thing standing right in front of him was telling him that he shouldn't be believing in him. Maybe those doctors were right. Maybe he was crazy. He skated right up to the bank of the lake so he could get a better look at his companion. Then, without warning, he reached out and pinched him.

"Ouch!" the rabbit yelped.

Jack shrugged. "It didn't hurt much." It couldn't have, considering he'd mostly gotten a handful of fur.

"What are you going around pinching people for, ya wanker?" the rabbit demanded with a glare.

Jack tried to put on his best innocent face. From the look on the rabbit's face, it was not nearly innocent enough. "I was trying to figure out if you were real?" he tried.

"You're supposed to pinch _yourself_ for that!"

Jack grinned. "Yeah, but that doesn't seem like nearly as much fun."

"Why I oughtta--"

"Hey," Jack said, taking a cautious step back and holding his hands up in front of him. "Are you going to save my life just to kill me again?"

At that, the rabbit stopped stock still and finally looked at him, really looked. "You're the boy that fell in the water," he finally said, his eyes uncomfortably shrewd.

Jack shrugged again. "Yeah. It's hard to stop believing in the Easter Bunny after something like that."

The rabbit's nose twitched, and Jack had to swallow a mad giggle. "You've been doing all right, then? Since that day?"

"Yeah. I've been doing great." Jack smiled at him truly this time. Sure, some parts hadn't been exactly fun--but the fact he was there at all having a conversation with this strange creature who had saved his life was a blessing in and of itself. In fact... Jack put the tip of one of his fingers in his mouth so he could pull his glove off with his teeth, then dropped it into his other hand. He put out his bare hand with a friendly grin. "Hi. My name is Jack Overland."

The rabbit gave his hand a deeply suspicious look that would have offended Jack had he not noticed that the rabbit didn't have the best social skills anyway, then took it in one of his paws. "E. Aster Bunnymund."

Jack shook his hand, then paused for a minute before breaking out into laughter. "Wait, your name is Easter? Really? For real?"

Aster scowled and yanked his paw back. "Oi, belt up."

"No, it--" Jack broke off into helpless giggles again. "It suits you."

"You know, some of us do have jobs to do, brat."

At the mention of this, Jack finally noticed that Aster was carrying a large basket of brightly colored eggs that sparkled with a glittering shine that was not quite earthly. "Oh jeez. You really are the Easter Bunny, aren't you?" Which meant that the overgrown rabbit would probably be on his way any minute.

"Nah, mate, I'm the bloody Groundhog," Aster said, rolling his eyes. "Of course I am."

"Will you--" Jack stopped himself, realized that his voice was letting out far too much of what he was feeling. "Will you be back again?"

For the first time, Aster's gaze softened. It was as if he finally realized the enormity of this encounter, what meeting his savior actually meant to Jack. "Yeah. I'll be back next year, Jacko. I come 'round every Easter--kind of in the job description," he said, gentling his voice. He looked away then to rummage around in his basket, then pulled out a small, frost-colored egg which he presented to Jack. "Here you go, mate. Something to remember me by."

"Thanks," Jack said, ignoring the lump rising up in his throat. He wasn't sure what exactly he'd ever planned to do if his furry savior had shown up again, but playful bickering by the side of a frozen lake had not been high up on his list. Somehow, though, he found that he couldn't complain one bit. He took the egg and placed it safe in the pocket of his heavy coat.

"G'bye, Jack," Aster said, and Jack just barely managed a nod in reply. He watched the rabbit go, his movements surprisingly lithe for a creature so large. And then Aster paused and turned just a bit. Jacked tensed up, waiting.

"Jack?" Aster called back over his shoulder.

"Yeah?" Jack asked, heart in his throat.

"Stay off the ice, ya bloody drongo. D’you have a death wish or something?"

Startled out of his melancholy, Jack couldn't help but laugh long and loud.


	2. Snowbird

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're still rubbing the edges off this thing, but things are coming along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in getting this out! There have been some upsetting events in my community that have made concentrating on writing difficult, but the Olympics have started, and that's given me a push! I'm aiming to get this finished by the time the Olympics are finished, so I'll be posting two short chapters in quick succession to get back on schedule. One tonight, one tomorrow morning. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Boys are kind of awkward with each other in this chapter, but new friendships are always hard before you knock off the edges. No beta, so as usual, please give me a shout if you see any errors. I've seen speedskating spelled with and without the space, so I decided to go with the spelling I found on the Team USA website.

The next year, Easter fell in mid-April, and Jack found himself wandering around a field of daffodils next to a glimmering blue lake while he waited for Aster. It still felt a bit silly to do, but last year, he had... He had felt some kind of _connection_ with the giant rabbit, and whether it was a just the life debt he owed him or something more, Jack felt a deep and pressing need to see him again. So he'd come back home for the weekend, surprised his mother with hugs and stories of a freshman skater starting to settle into his new life. And he'd sneaked out again this morning, just like he had the year before. Liquid or not, Jack knew that his family still mistrusted the lake he was currently pacing next to.

"You're gonna wear a hole in the grass if you're not careful, mate."

Jack looked up and instantly brightened as he caught a look at his new-old friend leaning against an old oak tree just starting to bloom--a tree that Jack was almost positive hadn't had more than the beginning of buds a few minutes ago. "Aster!"

Aster looked much the same as he had the year before, tall and sleek and furry, and wearing nothing but a bandolier and an exasperated smile. "G'day there, Jacko. How've ya been?" he asked, shaking his head to cover his smile.

Jack felt no need to hide his. "I've been good! I've just started college and it's been really great!"

Aster looked less enthused. "College-age believers," he muttered to himself, "What's next, adults putting teeth under their pillows?"

Jack ignored him and continued, "And the rink they've got there is so much nicer than the local one."

"Oh?" Aster asked, ears perking up. "So it's not just lakes you skate on, then?"

"Nah, a speedskater," Jack said, then gave him a somewhat devilish grin. "Short track."

"Oh? And what's that?" Aster asked. Jack wasn't entirely sure if he was feigning interest or not, so he just decided to assume that the question had been meant earnestly. Jack was going to answer it that way regardless.

"It's like normal speedskating, but with more chaos," Jack said, grinning even wider. "It's a smaller track, so it's a bunch of people on in a small rink going top speed and trying not to run into each other or the wall. Too hard, anyway."

Aster snorted. "So you're into a more dangerous version of an already dangerous sport. Somehow I'm not surprised."

Now it was Jack's turn to scowl. "You know I don't really have a death wish, right? I just like to skate," he said.

"I've noticed," Aster answered dryly. The look on his face was strangely pensive, and Jack had the sudden urge to explain himself.

"It's just--" Jack shifted his weight as he grasped for words. "I feel at home on the ice. Like I was meant to be there. Like I was _born_ to be there. Even when I was just a kid, I would always sneak out and go skating. As soon as I'm on the ice, I don't have to think about anything else. It's like a whole other world where you're completely free. You're not even bound by the usual laws of physics anymore." At Aster's unimpressed look, he added, "Well, you are, but it doesn't feel like it. It feels like you can fly."

Aster shook his head. "See, I _have_ flown, Snowbird, and it's not something meant for the likes of us." He tapped his feet on the grass. "Both feet firmly on the ground. That's how I like it," he said. "And what are you grinning about?"

Jack shook his head. "Snowbird," he answered with a playful grin.

Aster made a flustered sound and looked away, clearly embarrassed. Jack had a feeling that if he could get close enough to see under all that fur, the skin there would be flushed. "Well, all that talk about flying--and you're certainly flighty enough, Jacko, believe you me."

"Yeah, sure," Jack said, strolling closer to his furry friend. "I think it's cute."

Aster's ears went back slightly, like he didn't quite know what to make of this young man coming into personal space that was not often invaded. "Do you now?"

"Yep," Jack answered, then grinned. "I think you like me."

Aster scoffed at that. "What, an irresponsible little larrikin like you?"

Jack laughed. "I have no idea what that is. But I'm gonna go with yes." And all the sudden, all joking aside, he knew that he was right. Maybe Aster felt the pull of the life debt just as Jack did. After all, it was a hard thing to forget. Maybe it was hard to dislike a person after you saved their life. There was a bond there between them, tentative enough that he shied away from poking too hard at it lest it break. He wasn't sure what he would do without it.

So he took a step back, covered the action with hands on his hips and a cheeky quirk to his lips. He tried not to take offense when Aster immediately relaxed. "Don't feel bad, Aster. I'm a tough guy not to like."

"Pfft," Aster said, waving a paw, "You just keep telling yourself that, Jacko." Despite his words, though, his tone was fond.

There was a brief silence then while both of them struggled for something to say. Jack didn’t like it; silence always made the back of his neck itch. “So, what,” Jack asked, scuffing his shoe against a patch of clover, “Are you always nice and responsible? Never need a shot of adrenaline like the rest of us?” He was going to have to examine why teasing seemed to be his default way of communicating with Aster.

Aster snorted derisively. “Don’t have time to be irresponsible, mate. Getting eggs out to six continents before all the children wake up isn’t exactly a picnic. And that’s putting aside dogs, cars, _bears_ , morning joggers, and college-aged yobbos who don’t let a bloke do his job.”

Jack just grinned impishly. As irritated as Aster sounded, he could tell it was a put on. “You love it, though, don’t you? If it were easy, it wouldn’t be fun,” he said. Then he looked closer at Aster, who was looking a little shifty. “You _are_ an adrenaline junkie, aren’t you? You like the obstacles!”

“Well, it’s not as if they’re ever that much of a worry,” Aster said with a wink. “You’d have to wake up pretty early in the morning to catch a rabbit.”

“Oh?” Jack asked, eyes turning sly. “Like you could catch me on the ice.”

Aster threw back his head and laughed, and Jack was temporarily stunned at the rich sound of it. “We’ll have to give it a go sometime, then, see who ends up catching whom,” he said, and for a second, Jack burned for that day. 

Then he shook himself off, refusing to wonder where that sharp pang of longing had come from. It was getting pretty bad if he was getting that lonely. Might want to take the training down a notch. (Nah.) He looked at Aster, whose expression had gone far away as he looked out through the trees, and Jack followed his eyes. Orange light was starting to stream through the trees, and Jack realized with a start that more time had passed than he’d realized. The fresh twilight of a new morning was already giving way to dawn. “You have to go, don’t you?”

“Yeah.” And Jack could see real regret there, a fact which warmed him to his toes. “Still got a few time zones to go before I’m done.” Then Aster bent behind a tree and pulled out his basket of eggs. For the briefest of seconds, Jack could see indecision in Aster’s usually confident posture, but it was just as quickly dismissed and Aster reached into the basket. “Got another egg for you, Snowbird.”

“For me?”

Aster pulled a small, white egg out of the basket. “Yeah, for you. The Easter Bunny’s always got an egg for a Believer.” Jack could hear the capitalization there, knew that Aster was talking about something in particular. But there was no time to talk about it now.

He scrambled across the field, nearly tripping over a rock in his haste to get to where Aster stood. “Gimme.”

Aster shook his head, but he still held out the egg, which Jack took and immediately held close. The egg he had gotten last time had been the color of fresh frost, pale blue with an ethereal sparkle to it. It had been lovely, but a bit impersonal. This time, Jack had no doubt that Aster had personally made an egg with Jack in mind. It was pale blue again, but this egg was painted with intricate geometric designs of navy and white that together seemed to form shapes that were not quite flowers and not quite snowflakes. It was, in a word, “Beautiful.” Jack looked up at Aster, whose ears were laid back against his skull again in embarrassment. “Seriously, Aster, this is great.”

Aster made an aborted movement, as if he wanted to take a step towards Jack but at the last second tore himself away. “Weren’t no big thing, Jacko. It’s my job.”

Jack’s lips quirked up at the edges, a smile which couldn’t quite be contained. “Sure, Aster. Thanks.”

Aster waved one great paw at him, then turned to go. “Yeah, yeah. You take care of yourself, Jack,” he said.

“You too,” Jack called, even as the rabbit disappeared. He looked down at his egg again, light and fragile enough that Jack knew this was one to keep. Whatever else he didn’t know about his new friend, he knew that his jumbled half-feelings were not one-sided.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had Polish pisanki eggs in mind for what Aster gave Jack this Easter. [Here's an example.](http://i.imgur.com/THZ1rWC.jpg)
> 
> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed. Next time, it's 2010 and Jack has to learn to deal with disappointment and hope.


	3. Through Tears, Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack experiences the disappointment of a lifetime. Thankfully, he has a little bit of hope on his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! Here's the second chapter! This fic is going to culminate in Sochi, so we're at 2010 right now. The Olympics being referred to in this chapter are the Vancouver Olympics. (And uh, no hard feelings towards any silver medalist at Vancouver. Y'all are great, I'm sure.)
> 
> I'm starting to talk about skating more in this chapter (as well as some medical stuff) so I'm going by a lot of internet research. If I've mucked up somehow, please feel free to let me know.

A little bit less than one year later, Jack was lying flat on his back in the middle of those same daffodils. An obnoxiously large, black walking cast encased his right leg, and his crutches were laid out next to him. He fought the urge to sigh for about the hundredth time. He could not wait until he was out of this thing.

He waited a few more minutes for Aster to make his appearance, and then he gave in. He sighed, loud and long, into the cool morning air. This sucked.

"Quite the bellows you've got there, Snowbird."

Jack sprang up onto his elbows and craned his neck until he caught a glimpse of his friend. Aster had somehow gotten a lot closer than Jack had expected while he was distracted, and Jack had to physically restrain himself from jumping when he realized just how close he had gotten to looming. "Aster!"

Aster crouched down next to him and clucked over the cast. "Looks like you took a spill there, Jacko. Was it your more-chaotic-than-usual-skating lack of a death wish?" he asked, giving Jack's leg a scrutinizing eye.

Jack just sighed again. He'd been doing that a lot lately. "Yeah. Ran into another guy during training. Fractured both bones in my ankle."

"Hmm." Aster laid a paw on Jack's leg and winced as if that light touch had told him something. "Training for what?"

Jack couldn't help but boggle at him a little bit over that. "You really don't get out much, do you? There was this little thing two months ago, nothing big, just _the Olympics?_ " he said, eyebrows climbing up into his hair line. Surely even a magical creature would notice a worldwide event like that.

Aster sat back on his haunches. "The Olympics? I thought that was only for pros," he said, and the bastard had the audacity to actually sound confused.

"I _am_ a professional!" Jack snapped, sitting up so he could more properly glare. "I've been competing in the World Championships since I was 16!"

Aster's mouth opened, then closed. Jack didn't know whether to feel gratified or annoyed at how shocked he looked. Then finally, he looked away, fixing his gaze back on Jack's ankle. "I see. So you were going to skate at the Olympics?" he asked, an odd note to his voice. Jack had to strain to hear it, but he was pretty sure that there was something like embarrassment and regret there. Maybe even grief.

Jack breathed out slowly, reminding himself that there really was no way Aster could have known if he wasn't following human sports at all. And why would he? It's not as if he was human. Their lives only briefly intersected once a year. He had no idea what Aster even did with the rest of his life. When he finally answered, his voice was dull. "Yeah. I officially made the team a few months ago, and I--it's not as if I was going to medal or anything. But I was so excited just to go..." He swallowed hard, tamping down the bitter disappointment that had been his constant companion for the last two months. "But we'd just gotten there when I had the accident. I spent almost the entire games in the hospital recovering from the surgery." He'd never forget the blinding pain or the sudden, sure knowledge that he was out of the games.

Aster still crouched next to him, still and quiet. "And the other guy?"

Jack laughed shortly. "Got a fucking silver."

"Oh, Jack," Aster murmured, and then did the last thing Jack expected. He pulled him into a sideways hug.

Jack froze for a moment, unsure what to do, but then allowed himself to relax into Aster's hold. He turned his face into Aster's shoulder and let himself breathe in his scent, warm and grassy and just a little bit earthy. At that moment, cradled against impossibly soft fur and a solid body, that scent was the most comforting smell in the world. He'd been hugged a number of times since the collision, by his coach and his teammates and by his entire family, but there was something different about this one. It was familiar and yet not, simultaneously calling him back to the muted terror of a childhood nightmare and reminding him of the strange sort-of friendship they had now. It was the most vulnerable he'd ever felt, and he could feel the fragility laced over his bones, over his life. It was being human, and for a moment, he had never despised being something more.

He felt the tears welling up in the back of his throat even before he could feel Aster's rumbled "let it out, Snowbird" and then he was crying for the first time since the accident. He buried his head in Aster's shoulder and sobbed. He sobbed for pain and for lost opportunities, and he sobbed because he would never again live without the knowledge that happiness was ephemeral, balanced on a steel blade and so, so tenuous. He sobbed knowing that when he'd heard that snap, he'd lost the last bit of innocent childhood that had been clinging to his young frame.

Through it all, Aster just held him close and occasionally stroked his hair. He murmured nonsense sounds at him as he cried, half-formed words that were meant more as comfort than as answers, and Jack soaked up the attention. 

It couldn't have lasted too long, no more than ten or fifteen minutes, but when he was done, Jack felt absolutely exhausted. He pulled away eventually, wiping at his eyes as he went. "I'm sorry."

Aster shook his head and gave Jack an awkward pat on the shoulder. "No worries, Jacko. We all need a good cry now and again."

"I just--I was so _close_ , Aster," Jack said, his voice still thick with emotion. It had been at the very tips of his fingers before it had gotten away from him, and that was perhaps what hurt most of all.

"I know, mate. And you'll get there again. You're what, twenty? You'll have another chance. And this time you'll be even better," Aster said. He sounded awfully sure for a rabbit who hadn't even believed that he was capable of going to the Olympics a half hour ago, and Jack couldn't help a watery chuckle at that.

"Nineteen," he replied, and Aster gave him a questioning look. "My birthday's not until May."

"Good," Aster said with a decisive nod. "Nice spring birthday. It's good luck."

Jack shrugged, looking down again. "I don't feel very lucky," he muttered.

"Sure you are," Aster said dismissively. "You have a second chance. You'll probably have more chances than that. And you have the strength to take them." Jack must have looked unconvinced because he added, "The boy I pulled out of that lake all those years ago was a fighter. The Moon saw something special in you, otherwise he wouldn't have helped me save you. And I see it, too, Jack." He looked Jack up and down, lingering at his ankle and at his face. "You won't let this keep you down for too long."

Jack felt something warm growing under his diaphragm then, and it took him a moment to identify it as hope. It wasn't something he'd felt much over the past couple months. He smiled as he looked down, a private sort of smile that he wouldn't show to just anyone. Somehow, Aster didn't feel like just anyone.

"There we go," Aster said, as if something important had been decided, then moved forward to crouch next to Jack's leg. "D'you mind if I try something here, Jack?"

"Uh." Jack wasn't entirely sure he wanted a giant rabbit handling his damaged ankle, but Aster had never given him reason to distrust him in the past. "Okay?"

Aster laid his paws on Jack's leg and without warning, Jack started to feel a warmth start to seep into his skin. It felt like the warmth of the sun on a spring day soaking into his skin, loosening muscles, strengthening bones. Nothing moved or hurt or anything as ostentatious as all that, but something seemed indescribably different after Aster took his paws from Jack's ankle, and it was with some trepidation that he asked, "What did you do?"

"Not all that much," Aster admitted. "I'm no healer. But I've got some control over life and growth. I can give things a little nudge, remind them what they should be doing and which way's forward."

Jack felt his cheeks redden. Seems like Aster had been doing that for him in more ways than one. "Thanks," he muttered, then looked up with a spark in his eyes that hadn't been there in far too long. "Who would have guessed? The Easter Bunny has magic."

"And more than just that besides, bucko," Aster said, a smile finally crinkling his features.

Jack smiled back helplessly, but then his face clouded as he realized the time. They'd been sitting there for at least forty-five minutes, if not an hour. "Wait, shit, did I get you off schedule?" he asked, suddenly casting around for his crutches.

Aster shook his head as if at some private joke, then stood up and stretched. "Don't worry about that one, Snowbird. I worked a bit faster than usual to put aside some time for you this year, and I can make up some time over the west coast. She'll be apples, mate," he said, leaning down to offer Jack his paws.

Jack wordlessly took them, and tried not to squeak when Aster pulled him up off the ground in one smooth motion that put barely any pressure on his ankle. It was then, standing there with his hands wrapped around Aster's forearms for balance, that he finally gave in to temptation and surged forward to hook his arms around Aster's waist. He pressed his face once more against soft, soft fur and hugged Aster close. "Thank you," he finally said. "For everything." For hope.

Though he had initially stiffened at the unexpected contact, Aster relaxed at this. It was as if he'd heard something unsaid, and he just gave a throaty chuckle that Jack could feel reverberating in his chest. "Like I said, Snowbird. No worries. Just doing my job," he said, wrapping his own arms around Jack and patting him on the back. "Ah, speaking of which," he began, and started to pull away, then thought better of it. "Er, let me help you with your crutches, Jacko."

Once Jack was standing on his own strength, Aster went to busy himself with the basket of eggs that had apparently been sitting behind them all the time. 'Doing his job'? Jack wasn't sure what he thought of that. Regardless of what the Easter Bunny's unknown duties were, no part of what they had just shared felt businesslike. Jack's musings were cut off, however, when Aster reappeared with the egg that Jack was starting to expect at the end of each visit. "Here you go, mate."

Jack shuffled his weight so he could take the egg as gently as possible. This one was another blown egg: light, fragile, and for a permanent collection. He turned it over in his hands, marveling at its intricate pattern. This one had been dyed a midnight blue, but Aster had found some way to keep delicate white paths dye-free. The white lines spiraled around the egg in feathery designs, bringing to mind chill winds on a winter day. "How did you--"

"Trade secret," Aster replied with an impish look. "I'll be seeing you, Jack."

"Yeah," Jack said, looking away. He focused on his egg so he wouldn't have to watch Aster leave, so he was surprised when Aster took a step towards him instead.

"Hey, Jack?" Aster said, and there was a hesitance in his voice that Jack might have called vulnerable if he didn't know better. "If you wanted to be out in the evening next year, we might have more time to talk. Should be done with egg duty by seven or so your time."

"Really?" Jack asked, before he could stop himself. He winced at the eagerness in his voice, but Aster didn't seem bothered.

"Yeah, really. You're pretty far along on the route here, and if you don't mind a tired rabbit, I'll be all yours."

"I--" Jack knew he was turning red at that turn of phrase, but Aster either didn't notice or was determinedly ignoring it. "Yeah, sure. I'll be out here waiting for you."

Aster gave him a true smile at that point, and it was like the sun coming out on a spring morning. "Right. Right then. I'll see you next year, then, Snowbird," he said, and with a wave, he was on his way.

This time, Jack was able to watch him go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The eggs this time were created using a form of resist dyeing. In this case, Aster likely used wax. If you want to do something like this at home, rubber cement makes it really easy. An even easier method (if a little less effective) is to just draw on your eggs with white crayon before you dunk them.
> 
> As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Next time, Jack starts to learn a little more about the secret ways of the world.


	4. Spring and the Nature of Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack learns the nature of things, and he's not sure what he's supposed to do with this information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Another chapter. I was gonna save it for tomorrow, but I thought I'd post it today in honor of the first short track events at Sochi. (PS, congrats to the winners! I'd put their names here, but I know a lot of people haven't watched yet.)
> 
> As an aside, all of the events of this fic are fully planned at this point, down to the times and Olympic placing. None of the actual events at Sochi are going to be influencing the plot of this fic, though I did incorporate some details like what Sochi uniforms look like and such. I have a lot of conflicted feelings about Sochi itself and the way things are being handled there, but I still love the Olympics. So while I'm using Sochi as a setting, I'm using it as a somewhat fictionalized setting.
> 
> All that aside, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Easter fell late that year, and even though it was early evening, Jack still had no need for the hoodie he carried in his arms. He'd taken it just in case; when he'd told his parents he was going for a walk after dinner, his father had fussed at him until he'd agreed to take a jacket with him. Jack couldn't help but roll his eyes at the thought. It wasn't as if he spent half his life on ice or anything. Since Vancouver, he'd cut down on his already light course load and thrown himself into his training. He'd lost a lot of time to recuperation and physical therapy, and it was only with grueling twelve hour training days that he was finally starting to get back to where he'd been a year ago. With luck, he'd be even better than he had been a year ago before he started in on the competition circuit again. It was easier to think about that kind of thing with hope now instead of despair, and Jack knew exactly who to thank for that.

With that in mind, Jack peered around the clearing for any sign of his friend. He hadn't been able to get out of his house until a little ways after seven and the evening light was already starting to dim. Sunset couldn't have been too far off, and Jack never would have forgiven himself if he'd managed to miss Aster. It scared him a little when he thought about how much he'd come to look forward to their brief meetings, and he regularly reminded himself that he and Aster knew very little about each other. He didn't know about Aster's job or his family, and before last year, Aster hadn't even known what Jack was working so hard for. Still, as much as he would have liked to, it was hard to deny that the days went by more slowly when Easter was on its way, and his heart always sped up when the moment of truth was near.

Like it was now. Jack's heart was beating so hard and so fast that he was sure that Aster would be able to find him just from the sound of it. He was so focused on the quick _th-thump_ of his heartbeat that he almost missed the sound of a cracking branch behind him. He spun around, instantly tensing before he realized exactly who he was looking at. He sighed. "Jeez, Aster, you scared the bejeezus out of me."

Aster gave him a tired grin. "Evening, Jack," he said, and his voice was just casual enough that Jack was suddenly and unequivocally sure that that had been his game all along. "How's the leg?"

Jack looked down at his ankle and wiggled his foot in a little circle pointedly. "Way better. It healed a lot more quickly than any of the doctors thought it would." He gave Aster a knowing look. "How 'bout that?"

The corners of Aster's eyes crinkled up when he smiled, and Jack couldn't help but grin back in response. "Funny how that works," he replied. He came a bit further into the clearing with a lurching hop, then seated himself on a large rock not too far away from the lake where they'd first met. He sighed deeply, and Jack had to fight back the sudden, inane urge to pet his ears in comfort.

Instead, Jack simply trailed after him and plopped himself on the ground next to the rock. "Long day?"

"You have no idea, Snowbird. More than 190 countries and two billion children are a lot to cover in one day, even with magic," he said, and Jack could hear every step he'd taken in the weary tone of his voice.

"Wow," was all Jack could think to say. But seriously, _wow._ "Don't you have any help?"

"Well, some of the googies have gotten right good at hiding themselves," Aster said thoughtfully, "But other than that, it's just yours truly." At Jack's incredulous look, he chuckled lowly. "Don't worry yourself over it, Jacko. I like it better that way. I'd never have the patience to command troops like some of the others do."

"Others?" Jack latched onto this eagerly. "There are others?"

"Of course there are," Aster said, quirking an eyebrow. "What, is Easter the only holiday you lot celebrate?"

Jack scooted closer. "Well, no, but most people don't believe in spirits or whatever for the others." He leaned his head back so he could size Aster up. "Then again, most people don't exactly believe in the Easter Bunny, either."

"Most _adults_ don't," Aster corrected, reaching down to ruffle Jack's hair and laughing when he spluttered. "If the children stopped believing, well, then we'd have a problem."

Jack smoothed back his hair and attempted a glare, but he was far too interested to keep it up for long. "What kind of problem?" he asked.

Aster looked to be considering something, and he gave Jack a long, level look before he said, "Belief is power, Snowbird. We can't help anyone who doesn't believe in us. Most adults can't even see us. And the kiddiwinks depend on us. Not all spirits have a specialty, but the strong ones do." He paused a moment, hesitation present in the tense, exhausted lines of his body. "The Guardians do."

Jack turned and leaned back on the rock so he could more easily look up at Aster. "What are Guardians?"

"Guardians," Aster said slowly, "Protect children. More importantly, we protect what's inside 'em. Children contain some of the most important things in the world. Wonder. Memories. Dreams." He paused for a moment. "Hope. Every child has a light in them, and when that light is snuffed out, it's disastrous. Without that light, the world has nothing but darkness."

Jack was silent for a minute as he digested that. Aster had said "we". "So you're a Guardian?"

"Yep," Aster replied. "Guardian of Hope, at your service." He gave Jack a wry smile. "That's why it's so important that I get all the eggs out, mate. Easter calls up spring, and spring brings new birth. New chances. Hope."

Jack remembered the year before, the gentle swell of hope within him that Aster's kind words had managed to stir up. All of Aster's steady, encouraging words about second chances. The way Aster had said "just doing my job". He really had been, hadn't he? Suddenly, Jack had to tilt his head down and pretend to examine the lake in front of them. He couldn't stand to look Aster in the eyes anymore. He had no doubt that his skating would improve, not anymore, but a smaller, more private hope inside him was curling in on itself like a page of a book cast into the fire. He'd really been an idiot, hadn't he?

"Oi, Jack." He felt Aster stir behind him, then sit forward so he could lay a paw on his shoulder. "What's the trouble?"

Jack brought his knees up to his chest and looked down at them as if they held the answers he sought. "Nothing. Just something dumb." Seriously dumb. Sure, most pro athletes were attention-seekers to some degree, but apparently he was lonely and foolish enough to think that mythical creatures would find him special.

"Jack," Aster said again, and his voice was low. "I can feel it, y'know. When hope goes out."

Jack's head thumped onto his knees. Seriously? Then he'd been even more transparent than he'd thought. "I just..." He swallowed, prepared himself for the mocking that was sure to come his way. "I don't know. I just felt like we were becoming friends." Or something like it.

"What?" Aster drew away from him, and Jack tried not to let that sting too much. It was nothing he hadn't expected.

Jack raised his head a little so he could scuff one shoe against the grass. "Last time, what you said and--and what you did. They meant a lot to me," he said, humiliation burning through him with the confession. There was nothing more embarrassing than admitting that your feelings were stronger than someone else's. "I didn't realize you meant it when you said you were just doing your job."

_"Ah."_ Aster said with such a specific brand of understanding that Jack couldn't help but scowl at the ground. "That's what this is all about?"

Jack nodded, the lump in his throat preventing him from saying anything more. He tried to summon up the TV smile he'd had to use on all those reporters asking "How did you feel when you realized you were out of the games?" That brittle grin that covered up those negative emotions that no one really wanted to see. The "I'm fine!" you answer when people ask you how you're doing, because rarely did people mean those words sincerely. People didn't really want to deal with his issues. They just wanted a grin and a sound bite. He'd thought that Aster was different, but...

"You silly little drongo."

Jack jerked to attention at that. He wasn't 100% sure what a drongo was, but that had definitely sounded disparaging. "Hey!" he snapped. Sure, he'd been dumb, but Aster didn't have to be such an ass about it. He turned to give him a piece of his mind, only to be stopped short when he saw the expression on Aster's face. It wasn't condescending or cruel. If anything it was fond. "I--what?"

Aster shook his head, that peculiar expression still firmly seated on his face. "You really are a right idiot, Jack. Do you really think I tell these things to just anyone?"

"I--" Jack paused for a moment, perplexed. "No?"

"Of course I don't, ya galah." Galah? "I can't remember the last time I told a human about these things."

Jack turned his whole body this time, ignoring the way their feet jostled together, so he could get a good look at Aster. "Seriously?"

Aster nodded. "They're not just my secrets I'm trusting you with, Jack. The four of us work hard to protect the natural way of things, and I wouldn't risk that for someone that I didn't..." he trailed off, struggling for words. "That I didn't care about," he finally finished, though he didn't look pleased with what he'd settled on. "I helped you out to protect hope, but also to _give_ you hope. It's the very best gift I have, Snowbird, and I wasn't about to let you sit there and cry without giving you my best."

Jack watched Aster spit the words out, wrestling with emotions as foreign to him as they were to Jack, and he shook his head. He really was an idiot. He felt a grin start to creep up on his face. A total idiot.

"There now," Aster said, taking in his grin with some satisfaction. "All straightened out?"

Jack nodded, still not trusting his voice quite enough to speak, but he scooted closer and angled his body so they could better talk.

"Ace. Now, I believe you asked about the others?"

Jack perked up. "Yeah!"

Aster leaned forward conspiratorially. "Well, there are three other than me. There's the Sandman--great guy, works with Dreams. And the Tooth Fairy--she's a bit flighty, but her Memory work can't be beat. And then there's North," he said, making a face.

"North?" Jack asked, head spinning. The Sandman and the Tooth Fairy were real? What next, Santa?

"I believe the littlies call him Santa nowadays."

"Oh my god. Santa's real?" Jack asked, leaning forward, right up into Aster's space.

Aster rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah. Real big, real loud, real up himself..."

"Oh my _god,_ " Jack repeated. "You know Santa!"

"Oi," Aster said, starting to puff up. "He's not that great, y'know. He's just an old blowhard with terrible taste in colors."

Jack started to open his mouth to spout out another stunned iteration of _but Santa!_ when he recognized the sulky tone in Aster's voice. That was jealousy right there, or he'd eat his skates. And, he supposed, it made sense that Aster might feel insecure in the face of the glory of all that was Christmas. When it came up between eggs and presents, he doubted most children would pick the eggs. Then again, he was starting to get the feeling that most children weren't getting the same eggs he was from Aster. Remembering the delicate scrollwork on the egg from last year and the intricate little designs on the egg from the year before (both preserved carefully on a shelf next to his bed back in town), he patted Aster's knee. "I gotta admit, Christmas colors are way tackier than Easter colors."

"Right? There's _artistry_ in Easter that that pompous old windbag couldn't hope to match, not with a thousand yetis!" Aster sniffed, exhaustion forgotten in the face of righteous indignation.

"Uh." Yetis? "Yeah. Easter's pretty great," Jack said, and he found that he meant it. Perhaps it was because he had something special to look forward to now, but he'd been looking forward to Easter more than Christmas for the last couple years now. He considered telling Aster that, imagining the way it might make him crow in triumph, but then decided to keep that information to himself. He'd shared enough embarrassing information today, thank you.

"Good man, Jack," Aster said, clapping him on the shoulder and causing Jack to rock forward with the force of it. "See that you remember it."

"You know," said Jack quickly, doing his best to smother the laughter that he was only just holding back, "They all sound really great. I wish I could meet them."

"Actually," he said, tightening his grip on Jack's shoulder and turning a shrewd eye on him. "Wouldn't be surprised if you already have, Snowbird. Have you been having better dreams than usual lately?"

"Um." Jack thought back over the past few months. Yeah, he'd been having much better dreams lately, but he'd been attributing that to his visits with Aster. Ever since they had met for the second time, Jack's nightmares about drowning in dark water had subsided. He'd just kind of assumed that the pleasant dreams could be ascribed to the same thing. "I guess?"

"Yeah, I thought Sandy's been looking shifty lately," Aster said thoughtfully, letting go of Jack's shoulder and leaning back. "Think they might've noticed me changing my patterns."

"Sandy?" Jack asked. "Like as in the Sandman? Your friend the Sandman's been stalking me?" It was official. Jack's life was too weird for words.

"'Stalking' is a bit harsh. More likely he just wants to help. Sandy's always had the uncanny ability to know who needs the best dreams."

Jack snorted. "Sure, okay." Then a thought occurred to him. "He uh. He doesn't see the dreams he's giving people, does he?"

Aster's eyebrows shot up his forehead, but he shook his head. "I think he gets bits here and there, but nothing too detailed," he said. "Why? What sort of things have you been dreaming about, Snowbird?"

Oh, not much. Just soft fur and warm embraces. A companionship that he could enjoy off the rink for once. A maybe-friend who just might think he was worth investigating a little more closely. Just little things that would embarrass him for the rest of his life if anyone else knew about them. "Nothing _that_ bad," he said, looking away. "It's just weird."

Aster still looked curious, but he seemed to have the maturity to know when not to prod. (Which made him different from Jack--he probably never would have let a friend live this down.) "No dramas, Jacko. Sandy's a pro. All of us are, even North. We're good at our jobs, and we like them. He wouldn't go spying on you."

The corner of Jack's mouth twisted up, but he nodded. Not much to be done about it, he supposed. At least he didn't have to worry about the nocturnal visits from the Tooth Fairy anymore. He'd lost the last of his baby teeth long ago.

Aster seemed to remember something then. He sat up straight and made a small sound of inspiration. "Ah! That reminds me. Got something for you, mate," he said, he then he dug around in one of the pockets of his bandolier.

Jack pulled himself up onto his knees. After a few years of this, he thought he knew what was coming.

Sure enough, Aster produced another lovingly crafted egg from one of his pouches. "Here you are, Snowbird."

Jack took the egg carefully and put it up to his face to inspect more closely. This one appeared to have been made with pressed flowers, a dizzying array of colors represented in the blooms decoupaged across the surface of the egg. It should have been gaudy, ugly even, but instead it possessed a delicate beauty. The colors seemed to flow together seamlessly, and he couldn't imagine how many steps had gone into the creation of this egg. Just the fact that pressed flowers had been used spoke to a forethought not usually seen in egg decorating. "I--"

"Easter's late this year, and spring's well underway. Thought it might be nice to stick to the theme," Aster said, and Jack realized with a start that there was nervousness there. All that talk about being a professional and the importance of Easter... Was Aster trying to impress him?

"Aster, this is great," he said, for once allowing true sincerity to bleed into the compliment. "I love it. I'll put it with the others as soon as I get back."

Aster's ears perked up at that. "You've been keeping them, then?"

"Of course I have," Jack replied. Why on earth wouldn't he? They were gorgeous. He'd had more than one friend ask him where he'd gotten them. "I keep them all next to my bed." He paused. "Well, not all of them. That first one was an actual egg, so I had to eat it."

That finally startled laughter out of Aster. "Well, yeah. I wasn't exactly prepared for you that first year. You nearly took a decade off my life when you started talking to me," he said, chuckling at the memory.

"I scared _you?_ I was just minding my own business and suddenly there was a giant rabbit standing next to me! I thought I was going crazy!" Jack said, laughing along. In retrospect, it was pretty funny. They'd probably looked like gaping fish for a few minutes there.

Aster just laughed harder at that, and might have gone on for some time if his laughter hadn't been interrupted by a bone-cracking yawn. Oh right, Jack reminded himself. 190+ countries. 2 billion children. Before he could think about it, he reached up to smooth back ruffled fur on one of Aster's long ears. "You seem beat. Do you need to go--I don't know, wherever you go?" he asked, trying to keep the disappointment from his voice.

Aster stilled at the touch, and Jack almost jerked his hand away before Aster butted his head against Jack's palm lightly. "Yeah," he said, and there was genuine regret in his voice that set something thrilling through Jack's body. He levered himself up from the rock and staggered over to a bare patch of ground. "I should probably head back to the warren for some shut-eye."

And that brought up a whole other host of questions, but even Jack could tell that now was not the time to ask them. "Good night, then," he said lamely, wishing he could think up something cool and snappy to set Aster on his way.

"Good night, Snowbird," Aster replied and then did something odd with his foot and disappeared before Jack's eyes. It wasn't until the hole closed that Jack even realized that it had been open, and he stared at the small, unobtrusive violet flower standing where Aster had been. It had been the first time that Aster had actually left in front of him, had shown him the way he came and went, and Jack couldn't help but take this as a good sign. Aster had implied earlier that he trusted him, and maybe this was just another way of showing it.

He looked down at his floral little egg again and smiled. Jack wasn't entirely sure where they were headed, but he had a feeling that it was somewhere good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes on Jack's egg: This time, I went for a decoupage design. Usually decoupage is using a glue mixture (or something like mod podge) to stick paper onto something, but flower petals are also a thing! It would have been pretty difficult to get them on there without the colors running, but Aster's a pro.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed! Thank you for reading. Next time, the big, lonely elephant in the room gets addressed.


	5. Blank Spaces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack meets a childhood hero, but his loyalty isn't especially challenged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have lost huge swathes of work (as in chapters, outlines, research, etc.) for this fic no less than _five times_ , which led to me abandoning it for some time. But as they say, Easter is for new life. It's not quite the same as it once was, perhaps, but I'm hoping that it's still good.
> 
> To everyone who has been waiting patiently for this update for over a year, and for those who have sent me encouraging messages: thank you so much. I might have abandoned this fic for good if I hadn't seen how many people were hoping to see it finished. Y'all are the best. ♥

It was late, so late that it was almost early when Jack jerked himself awake, pale and panting. His eyes darted around the room as he tried to reorient himself in reality, and as his eyes cleared in the darkness, he was almost positive that he saw the briefest glimmer of golden dust drifting past his window. He rolled over in bed so his back faced the window, just in case. If the Sandman was paying him another one of the nocturnal visits that Aster had hinted at, he was sure he didn't want him to see the way his face burned.

This had been happening more often lately, and Jack wasn't sure if it was the Sandman who was to blame, or his own silly fantasies. He'd wake up and for a split second, he could still feel soft fur against his skin, warm musk in his nose, and the gentling stroke of claws through his hair. And for a moment, he'd be confused to be alone. The dreams were astonishingly vivid, and sometimes he halfway couldn't believe that he wasn't being held by his friend, that they had never met in any place other than Burgess, that they weren't sitting quietly by a frozen lake, supple green shoots curling around Jack's fingers as frost crawled up Aster's fur.

He curled up around his blankets and sighed. This was getting really embarrassing. Not as embarrassing as dreams could be, to be sure (and he as certainly not thinking about things like _that_ ), but humiliating all the same. The pang of loss that he felt as the world of dreams cleared away to make space for reality made him feel weak and alone, and he hated it almost as much as he loved the dreams.

Sweet dreams, his ass. They felt more masochistic to him.

Jack flipped around in bed a couple more times before conceding defeat. There was no way that he was going to get back to sleep after another one of those. He slid his feet out from under his covers, wincing as they hit cold flooring. As much as he loved coming home for Christmas every year, their drafty old house got _cold_.

He piddled around the dark house for a half hour or so, getting a snack and rummaging around old bookshelves, before he admitted to himself that he had nothing better to do than to return to bed. When he reentered his room, however, he saw something glinting up against the window. He crept closer, peering at the golden shape that hung just outside the pane. He must have missed this somehow, so eager to hide his dreams from the Sandman that he didn't realize that he'd left him just one more. It was an ornate Christmas tree, bedecked in constantly-shifting golden sand, and golden candy canes floated around it.

Jack squinted at this. Was this an early "Merry Christmas" from Aster's favorite fellow Guardian? Or was Sandy trying to give him a different message?

A suspicion started to itch at the back of his mind, something buoyed by a mixture of hope and joy that could only feel right in his heart. Maybe Sandy was telling him-- Could it be? Could another nighttime visitor be on his way? Jack's heart beat a little faster and for just a moment, he felt like a little kid again.

* * *

When he had been very little, Jack had always been careful to lecture his even tinier sister about the importance of being asleep when Santa Claus came to visit. He vividly remembered telling her horror stories about Santa passing up their house or worse, filling every stocking but hers, only letting up when her eyes started to fill with tears and guilt crept into his stomach. Despite all that, though, he had tried to stay up himself a few different years, staring out the window and straining to see the slightest speck out of place until his eyes and slipped shut despite his best efforts.

Jack couldn't help but chuckle to himself at the memory of it, especially considering that this year he was doing the exact same thing. Of course, there were a few differences. Instead of pressing his nose up against the glass, he was sitting on his bed attempting to reread the exact same paragraph of his book a dozen times. He was actually awake and alert this time around, full of nervous jitters instead of recalcitrant sleepiness. Oh, and he wasn't _six_ anymore.

Still. He glanced over at his window for what felt like the thousandth time. He had to come, right? Aster had told him once that he'd always have an egg ready for a Believer, and as far as Jack could tell, that was probably how all of them operated. Since he'd come to believe in the Sandman and Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, he'd definitely had more good dreams than usual. Jury was still out on the Tooth Fairy, but he didn't exactly have any baby teeth for her to creep into his room to take.

He paused for a moment and then wrinkled his nose, all at once profoundly grateful that he'd managed to befriend the only Guardian that didn't seem to break into children's rooms at night as part of the job description. In fact--

BANG! Jack's heart leapt up into his throat as what could only be described as "an almighty clatter" erupted right on the other side of this bedroom door. Actually, it sounded an awful lot like a knock might, if the knocker happened to be a herd of elephants.

"Uh," Jack said, and swallowed to moisten his throat. There was an expectant silence on the other side of the door. "Come in?"

The man who instantly burst into his room did not need to be asked twice. He strode inside like he owned the place, and dumped an enormous bag on Jack's floor before leaning back, hands on his hips, to survey the room's contents. Jack squirmed under his scrutiny, not sure he liked the way he was being watched. The man himself was just a little bit terrifying, enormous and loud and with eyes that glittered just as dangerously as the swords poking out from beneath his long coat. But despite his appearance, there was something reassuring about him, and Jack was somehow sure that this man was all bark and no bite. The sparkle in his eyes was fearsome, but also a sort of mischievous that Jack couldn't help but identify with.

"You're--" he started, and then stopped, suddenly not sure how to proceed.

"Ded Moroz," the man answered, and his voice was just as boisterous as Jack had expected. Then the man broke out into an enormous grin as he continued, "Père Noël, Viejito Pascuero, Father Christmas, St. Nicholas..." He trailed off and looked at Jack with gleeful expectation.

"Santa Claus," Jack breathed, crawling forward on the bed, and the man clapped his hands.

"Exactly!" he boomed, then leaned in close. "A little bunny tells me there is a very old Believer that Santa has been missing all these years."

Jack sat back on his heels. "Bunny?"

Santa (or--Aster had called him "North", right?) went on as if he hadn't said anything. "But that is _all_ Bunny is telling us," he said, his eyebrows doing something complicated, and it took Jack a second to realize that that was North's way of communicating _Understand?_

Jack understood, all right, and he shot North a cheeky grin even as his heart pounded. "You're checking me out, aren't you?"

He wasn't sure if that was the correct answer or not, but North threw back his head and laughed so hard that his bedframe shook, so it couldn't have been all wrong. "Da! We are all very curious about the boy Bunny has been to visit. Is he a naughty boy? Or a nice one?" He paused, giving Jack a measuring look, and then gave him a sideways smile. "Bunny is--not so friendly, yes?"

That startled a laugh out of him. "Yes," Jack said with a nod, but then he tilted his head to the side as he really thought about it. "Well, until you get to know him, anyway."

North's eyebrows shot up at that. "There are not many who can say that they know Bunny, and fewer still that are human."

Jack shrugged a little uncomfortably, and swung his legs out from under him so they could dangle off the side of his bed. This was not the way he had envisioned a conversation with Santa Claus when he had been six years old. "I dunno about that. Sometimes I think I just managed to harass Aster into liking me," he said, and he was only half joking.

For some reason, this just seemed to surprise North more, and Jack squirmed beneath his shocked stare. "Balakirev," Jack heard him murmur, and then he took a step closer so he could sit down on Jack's bed next to him. The force of his collapse would have probably launched Jack off the mattress if he had not cupped one huge hand around Jack's shoulder and pulled him closer conspiratorially. "What is your name, my boy? How did you come to know our Aster?" North rolled the name on his tongue like it was something unfamiliar, something precious, and Jack tensed against it.

"Uh. I'm Jack. Jack Overland. When I was a kid, I... I fell into a lake. I was going skating with my sister and the ice cracked and I couldn't let her--" Jack broke off awkwardly, feeling the full weight of North's considering gaze. "Anyway, I fell in and Aster saved me. I met him again a few years ago and we became friends. Sort of." Jack paused again, taking deep breaths against the memory of that day. "Well, I mean. Aster saved me, but I think the moon was involved somehow, too?"

"Artsybushev!" North crowed, jumping up off the bed and giving Jack a minor heart attack. "I knew it! You are _moon-touched_ ," he announced, giving a lock of Jack's hair a yank and looking immensely pleased with himself.

"Hey, ow!" Jack said, batting North's hand away. "What was that for?"

"That hair," North said, gesturing to his head, "Those eyes. They are not the ones you were born with."

Jack lowered his hands slowly. "How did you know that?"

North gave him a look that was so sage that Jack kind of wanted to hit him. "I know the look of magic, especially _Man in Moon's_ magic. When a child's light goes out, it is hard to bear, so very hard. But there is nothing that we Guardians can do about that. We can protect their hearts, and their light, and do our best to protect their lives..." he trailed off, eyes suddenly full of sorrow, and Jack wondered if he ever felt any emotion by half.

He felt the weight of North's emotions pulling him down, too. "But there are always accidents, right?"

North nodded gravely. "If your light was already going out, there is not much Bunny could have done to save you. But the Moon--the Moon has wondrous powers far beyond ours."

Jack stared straight ahead, away from North, and tried not to cling too tightly to the frantic voices he could almost hear shouting along the edges of his memory. Maybe that had happened that day. Aster had said he'd asked the moon for help...

"But if the Moon chose to save you, he must have seen something very special inside you," North mused. "Maybe Bunny saw it as well."

Jack didn't say anything, and he felt his throat thicken in response to North's words. The only times he felt special were when he was gliding across the ice and when Aster looked at him with those warm eyes. He didn't know anything about any magic.

North seemed to sense his mood because his countenance immediately changed again, ever mercurial, and suddenly he was all smiles. "Bah, but these are not words suitable for Christmas! Christmas is a time for joy and wonder! Come, Jack, tell old North good things about yourself instead. What is it that makes you happy?"

_Aster,_ was the first thought that came unbidden to his mind, but there was no way he could say that. He knew his face must have reddened based on North's smirk, so he cleared his throat and said the next best thing. "Ice skating. For almost my entire life skating has _been_ my entire life."

"Ah!" North exclaimed, throwing his arms out wide even as Jack instinctively shrank back from his enthusiasm. "Ice skating! Why didn't you say so? Surely, it is the soul of a winter spirit that lives inside you! You are one of mine!"

"One of yours?" Jack asked, and he did not try to keep the skepticism from his voice.

"Yes, yes, of course. Bunny has been keeping you all to himself, but that face, that skill on the ice--surely you are more winter than spring!"

All at once, Jack recalled the sulky way Aster had spoken of North, and realized that the two of them weren't just friends; they were rivals. He grinned. "Too bad, old man," he said breezily, "Aster's already got me pretty attached to the springtime. You're too late if you want to claim me for winter."

North sputtered at this, indignant. "But what are a few eggs compared to snowmen and presents?" he asked, and Jack was pretty sure that his tone was mostly faux-outraged... but only mostly.

"I don't know," Jack said with a smirk, finally starting to feel a little bit more like he was on even ground. Santa Claus he may be, but Jack Overland knew how to bicker with a Guardian. "The eggs Aster gives me are pretty great."

North scoffed. "This is only because he gives you the very best," he said, and Jack knew that once again, his cheeks were heating. North, thankfully, had busied himself digging through his bag and didn't seem to notice. 

"Let me show you what sort of presents Christmas can bring!" he finally said, brandishing a small--

"A doll?" Jack asked, taking it and turning it over in his hands. He'd seen these before. Ma--mat-something dolls. The stacking ones. 

"A special doll," North put in, and Jack finally realized what exactly he was looking at.

He gaped at it, taking in the snow white hair and bright blue eyes, the smirk twisting its lips and the painted skates hanging from one of its hands. "It's me."

"But of course! You did not think that Santa would give you just any old doll, did you?" North asked, then rocked forward on the balls of his feet expectantly. "Well, what are you waiting for? Open it!"

Carefully, Jack twisted the doll and pulled apart the two halves, only to reveal another, smaller him, quieter this time, and melancholy. His stomach twisted painfully as he recognized the one emotion he did his best to ignore gracing the little doll's face.

"Yes, though you are all smiles, you are also very lonely, aren't you, Jack?"

Jack looked up at North, but saw nothing but gentle warmth in his eyes. No mocking. No judgment. He swallowed hard, and twisted this one apart as well. The third doll was a him that he didn't recognize, one with frost-dusted shoulders and a long crook, a small, white bird perched on his hand. _A snowbird,_ his mind supplied. He pulled that one apart quickly, not wanting to hear more commentary on his wintery appearance. The fourth, though, the fourth took his breath away. It was the simplest so far, just a young boy with brown hair and eyes smiling back at him.

"That is what you once looked like, no?" North asked, and Jack didn't bother answering him. They both knew the answer to that. 

Instead, he just pulled apart the doll to reveal the very smallest of them all. He turned it around in his hands, trying to figure it out. "It's... blank," he said. He looked up at North sharply. "I'm nothing inside?"

"No!" North said, taking the doll from him. "You are everything inside. You are moon-touched with infinite potential. One day your true center will be revealed, Jack," he said, the merriness Jack had always associated with Santa Claus finally creeping up into his eyes, "And I cannot wait to see it."

Jack held the little white doll tightly in his hand, so tightly that he could feel it digging angry red lines into his palm. "Thanks," he finally said, then looked up at North with a lopsided half-smile. "But I still like Easter better."

* * *

That Easter, for the first time, Aster was waiting for Jack at their lake.

Jack had dithered a little while he was getting dressed to go outside. Should he bring North's gift to show Aster? In the end, he decided that as much as he wanted a second opinion on the tiny, blank doll, Aster would not appreciate being confronted with the competition. The matryoshka doll stayed where it was, wrapped up in a sweater in the overnight bag he'd brought home for Easter weekend.

It had made him late, though, and it was only long hours of endless cardio that kept him from panting hard as he ran up the trail to the lake. His heart was beating fast, more from nervousness than exertion, when he finally reached the clearing and saw Aster up ahead. The lines of his body were slack, and he was gazing out over the lake with an expression Jack couldn't place, but was willing to put down to the exhaustion borne of Easter festivities.

He wasn't really expecting to be able to sneak up on Aster, all things considered, but it still caught him by surprise when Aster turned to greet him as he walked up behind him. It was more the casualness of the gesture that threw him than its speed, and Jack had to clear his throat before he could say, "Hey, Aster. Happy Easter."

Aster's tired smile became truer and his eyes warmer at the sound of his voice. "Hey there yourself, Jacko," he said, and Jack felt a mirroring smile on his own face. "Happy Easter." Instead of bending double to pull an egg out of the basket by his oversized feet, he pulled one instead from his bandolier. "Careful there, mate. This one's fragile."

Jack took the proffered egg and turned it over in his fingers. It was a pure snow white, but the lack of dye didn't make it any less beautiful. The shell had been meticulously carved, leaves and vines and flowers flowing out across the shell like they'd grown there naturally, and Jack couldn't stop running his fingers over each of the carefully-placed grooves. "Definitely better," he murmured to himself, unable to take his eyes off of all the intricate little shapes. How long must it have taken Aster to make this for him?

"Better than what?"

Jack looked up at Aster, who had his brows raised in sardonic question, but couldn't seem to keep the fondness from his eyes. Jack felt something bubble up inside him in response to that expression and he had to duck his head to prevent from letting some sort of sound out. It was only when he could trust his voice again that he could look up with a grin and say, "Better than Christmas."

Aster's ears immediately pricked up at that, and he opened his mouth to respond before something else seemed to occur to him and his ears went right back down. "North?" he asked, and Jack only just managed to keep from laughing. Definitely rivals.

"Yep," he said, carefully pocketing his new treasure. "Nearly busted down my bedroom door last Christmas."

"What?" Aster snapped, and Jack watched his ears dance with no little interest. "Oh, I'll just bet he did. That old ratbag never had a lick of sense. Or subtlety, for that matter."

"No artistry at all," Jack put in, and Aster didn't seem to notice the laughter in his voice.

"Too right," he agreed, starting to pace. "Thinks he can just dump a load of snow and glitter off a flying deathtrap and all the kiddiwinks won't be able to tell the difference."

Normally, Jack would have been happy to see this tirade get off its feet, but he vividly remembered the way their last encounter had ended, and he had no interest in tiring Aster out any faster than he had to be. So instead of using any of the many things that came to mind that would have egged him on beautifully (no pun intended), Jack just dropped down to sit on a particularly soft tuft of grass and reached out to tug Aster down with him.

Aster must have been just as tired as Jack suspected, because he went down like a load of bricks, hitting the ground with a whuff and looking down at where Jack was still holding onto his forearm with wide eyes.

Jack huffed out a laugh and let go so he could pat his paw comfortingly. "Don't worry about it, Aster. I didn't let him lure me over to the dark side," he said wiggling his eyebrows meaningfully.

If anything, though, that just made Aster look more put out. "He tried?"

"Yeah," Jack said, rolling his eyes. "All this stuff about how I clearly had the soul of a winter spirit." Which wasn't true. "He also said that I was 'one of his'. Pfft. As if I belong to anyone." Which was... up for debate.

He turned to look over at Aster and was somehow unsurprised to see all his fur standing on end. "He said a lot of weird stuff... Hey, do you think he's going senile or something?" he asked, and was pleased to see that force a laugh out of Aster.

"Nah, he just runs his mouth too much. What else did he say?" Aster said, finally starting to settle down against him.

Jack paused, going over their conversation like he had been for the past four months. A lot of it he wasn't sure he wanted to ask about yet. At this point, he wasn't sure if he was more scared that Aster wouldn't tell him, or that he would. "Um... Not a lot that made sense, honestly." He plucked absently at a blade of grass between them. "I think he might have been worried about you."

Aster tensed beside him, and Jack blew out a breath. He knew what he wanted to ask, but he didn't know how. Why was it that everyone was getting so curious just because Aster had made friends with one human? What was so special about him that he had immaculate eggs and personalized dolls and heaps of ethereally golden sand on his shelves at home? What exactly was the Moon planning?

Thankfully, Aster took the choice away from him. "That's not something for you to worry about, Jacko. North's just an old worrywart, anyway."

Jack felt something build up in his chest that felt a little bit like anger, a little bit like hurt, and a little bit like heartburn. "What?" he asked, and he could feel that burn climbing up from behind his breastbone and into his voice. "Why is it that everyone is allowed to worry about me, but I'm not allowed to worry about the people _I_ care about?"

"Jack..." Aster looked up at him with wide, green eyes and they were new and old and comforting and confusing, and honestly, they just made him burn even hotter.

Jack struggled with the words bouncing around on the tip of his tongue, biting back the worst of them and the most confusing questions. "I just... You've saved me so many times. I don't just mean when I was little. Every year you manage to wake something up in me that I didn't even know was sleeping." 

It was verification that he wasn't crazy when he was about to give up. It was the magic that he could still feel thrumming through his ankle on bad days and the memory of soft fur and warm arms making him feel safe as he cried. It was the warmth of friendship and the heat of hope. He didn't have words for any of that, but it seemed to him that Aster was always the one giving him things. He slipped a hand inside his hoodie pocket and ran his fingers over the outline of a sprawling flower.

"You all never let me give anything back," he finally said, voice small. "How can you say that I'm not allowed to worry about you after everything you've done for me? We're friends, right?"

Beside him, Aster didn't say anything for a long, long time. So long that Jack was starting to wonder if he'd done some irreparable harm. Just as his internal monologue was hitting a fever pitch, though, Aster sighed loud and long, and it was like all the air had gone out of him. "North," he said forcefully, "Needs to stop stickybeaking and mind his own bloody business." He shook his head. "But that's not your doing, Snowbird."

Jack just waited. There had to be more, right?

Aster looked out over their lake and into the woods beyond, whiskers twitching with irritation. "Have you ever heard of the pooka, Jack?"

"Um."

That wrung a wry chuckle out of him, and he moved his paw so that it was just touching the edge of Jack's hand. "The pooka were an ancient race from very far away. They're older than North and they're older than Tooth--they're older than this entire world. And there was a war a long time ago that wiped out the lot of them. All but one, anyway."

Jack swallowed. He was ignorant to Aster's world, but he wasn't stupid. "You..."

Aster didn't look at him, but he didn't move his paw away, either. "It's good enough, most years. I like playing Easter Bunny for the children of this world, and I'm glad that our culture can live on through me. It's a good life, being a Guardian. It's just hard, sometimes, when you've seen so much change. The years run together into Easters and googs and it's hard to remember that all the light in this world is made up of individual hearts. You don't get surprised all that often anymore. Except," he said, finally turning his head to give Jack a pointed look, "For when some foolish larrikin manages to fall into a pond. In _March._ "

"I--" Jack at least had the grace to look sheepish. "Sorry?"

Aster scoffed and finally moved to place his paw on Jack's hand. "Idiot. This is the most fun I've had in centuries."

Jack looked down at their hands, blinking furiously when the image threatened to blur in front of him, and then turned his fingers the slightest bit so they could slide down between pads and claws and soft, soft fur to tangle with Aster's. "Thank you."

Aster snorted. "Don't thank me for that, Snowbird."

Jack leaned in just a bit to bump against Aster's shoulder. "Can I thank you for the egg, then? It's way prettier than what North gave me for Christmas," he said, punctuating that statement with a wink.

"Like that's a shock."

Jack laughed then, a real one, far harder than the joke warranted. It was the stress finally coming down off his shoulders, finally bringing him back to that quiet place that only Aster ever seemed to occupy. When he finally opened his eyes again, Aster was smiling down at him. "Now that's better. Finally giving me that smile I remembered."

And while Jack was sputtering over that, Aster just smoothly bumped his shoulder right back and asked after his training, and well, Jack could talk about his training all day. And Aster, as it turned out, had a thousand and one stories about Easters that had gone well, and Easters that most decidedly had not.

It wasn't until the skies had gone dark around them and the stars came out to shine just like Sandy's dreamsand that Jack realized that they had been sitting just like this in one of his dreams.

He inhaled quickly, choking on the heart that had somehow found its way up to his throat, and desperately tried to push away the emotions that he associated with that dream--closeness and belonging and safety and...

"All right there, Jack?"

"Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine, Aster."

He wasn't fine. The word had crept up on him while his defenses were down, and now he was sure that he'd never be able to banish it from his consciousness again.

Aster was still looking at him with concern, but Jack just shrugged. "It's just late," he said, and then cursed the words as soon as they were out of his mouth.

Almost as if he'd had to be reminded of passing time for it to have an effect on him, Aster's eyes suddenly took on a bewildered cast of exhaustion. "So it is, Jacko. I--" he interrupted himself with a bone-cracking yawn. "Not sure how I managed to yabber on like that for so long."

Jack knew exactly how, but he just smiled at Aster and tried not to let it look too wistful. "Guess you're just getting to be a windbag in your old age. Better watch out! You might end up like North one day!" he said, grinning and giving Aster's paw one last squeeze before letting go of it and pulling himself to his feet. He reached down to give Aster a hand up, pulling him up to his feet as best he could, what with Aster being a good twice his size. "You should probably get some sleep. You look dead on your feet, and I hear you old timers need a lot of sleep."

Aster just scoffed and cuffed him gently on the side of the head. "Still young enough to keep up with you, ya dill," he said, but the words held no bite.

They looked at each other for just a moment more before Jack pushed forward to pull Aster into a tight hug. "Good night." He hadn't known he was about to do it until it was done, but when he felt the way Aster shuddered in his arms, he couldn't feel even one little bit repentant. It felt too nice, the giant rabbit--the giant _pooka_ \--leaning into his embrace and letting his chin tuck into Jack's hair.

Even after Aster had gone, passing him one last wondering, lingering look over his shoulder as he jumped down his hole to god-knew-where, Jack didn't feel regret. After all, young people in love were supposed to be just a little bit reckless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *YELLS* [EGG-CARVING IS AMAZING!](http://www.designboom.com/art/carved-eggshells-by-beth-ann-magnuson/)
> 
> As always, thank you very much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed. Happy Easter!


	6. Protection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are shifting in the spirit world, but Jack's a lot more concerned about Aster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! It didn't take a year this time, but it did take almost three months... I'm improving!
> 
> A huge thank you this time to Kristy, who put up with a lot from me this chapter. So thank you for hand holding every time I dumped a draft and started over, and thank you for not murdering me when I finally sent you this chapter at 3 am. Also, thank you to everyone who's been reading this who leaves such encouraging comments. ♥

The ice was too thin to skate on, Jack knew, but that didn't keep the tips of his fingers from itching with the need to pull on his skates. Common sense held him back, thankfully, and his skates stayed safely stowed away in the duffel bag back in his room. It was too close to the games to be taking stupid risks like that.

Still. He looked out over the glassy surface of what he'd come to think of as their lake and let his eyes drift across the ice like he wished his feet were. The day felt charged somehow, like something important was going to happen. In other words, it was a perfect day for skating. He loved to pull the electricity from the air on days like these and channel it into a good, hard skate. He could feel it crackling inside him and being released to trail behind him, a frenetic kind of energy left in his wake. He didn't envy the guys behind him on days like today.

"Away with the pixies there, Snowbird?"

Years ago, the sound might have made him jump. Today, though, Aster's voice behind him was a welcome addition to his reverie, sliding in like it had always belonged there. He gave himself one second, two, to soak in it, before turning to greet his visitor with a lazy grin. "I am now."

Aster snorted and crossed his arms, shifting back into a stance that Jack knew was more playing than offended. "I am nothing like those obnoxious little buggers, I'll have you know."

Jack just raised his eyebrows. "So pixies exist, too?" These things didn't even surprise him anymore. They couldn't, not after Santa.

"Unfortunately." Aster pursed his lips. "You have to be careful this time of year. It's easy to get an infestation of the little pests around breeding season."

"Who knew?" Jack asked, a smile playing at the corner of his lips. "Pixies are basically magical cockroaches. Do I have to worry about fairies, too?"

Aster snickered, breaking his annoyed facade. "Nah, they're all right. Suspect you'll be finding that out soon enough."

"Oh?" Jack leaned in close and wiggled his eyebrows in silent appeal.

Aster just cuffed him gently and shook his head. "Nope. I won't be spoiling that surprise. A certain someone would kill me, and she's not one to have on your bad side."

Three guesses who that had to be. Aster looked far too pleased with himself for it to be anyone else. He'd never exactly been subtle. Jack grinned, and told himself that it was not at all besotted. "Guess I'll just have to find out for myself then."

One of Aster's ears batted forward a bit in acknowledgement. "Guess so." And he was smiling now too, so at least there was that. "Howzit goin', Jack?"

"It's good. Really good," he said. Then, impulsively, he leaned in and gave Aster a quick hug. They were there, right? Friends hugged each other hello, right? From the way Aster almost seemed to be holding onto his breath, the way he curled in around him, he thought that yeah, they were probably there. "It's been a long time."

"Yeah," Aster agreed, a note of something in his voice that Jack couldn't quite place. "It has."

Jack forced himself to pull away, but couldn't help but stretch out a hand, smooth down the fur on Aster's chest he'd ruffled as he left. He could feel the breath in Aster's chest there even as his fingers fell away, and when he looked up, Aster was giving him a bit of a nonplussed look. Shit. He cleared his throat. "So um. How did Easter go this year?"

From the way Aster snorted softly and rolled his eyes, his attempts at covering up his awkwardness with small talk had not gone unnoticed. "Just fine, Snowbird." He paused and gave his paws a flex. "In fact, I'm not sure that I've had one go quite so well in a long time. Things feel good."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I can always feel it when an Easter goes over well with the kids. It firms you up."

And yeah, now that he mentioned it, Jack could see that he did seem to be a bit more fit than in years past. Honestly, he'd just sort of assumed that he was being a dork about the sun in Aster's fur or whatever, but it really did seem a little thicker, a little more sleek. And his eyes were much, much brighter than they'd been some years. He didn't seem to wear exhaustion like an old coat like he'd seen before.

He smiled, privately thrilled to see that light in Aster's eyes. "Must've been some eggs this year."

Aster gave a half shrug at that. "I dunno. They have been coming easier to me the past few years. Inspiration's been good lately," he mused.

Jack only just managed to bite back both his grin and the little surge of hope at that. He didn't need to let Aster know how those words affected him. He didn't know if Aster was looking healthier and happier because of him, but it didn't hurt to hope. He knew that he'd certainly been feeling better, skating faster in the past couple years. It would be nice if that feeling was mutual.

"Speaking of which," Aster said, and crouched down to rummage through a basket at his feet. "I've got something a bit different this year."

Jack peered down in the basket. It seemed more full of cloth than eggs, and he watched as Aster carefully peeled back one layer of brightly-colored cloth, then another. It was a level of care that he hadn't seen Aster pay his eggs before, and he couldn't help but be surprised when Aster finally folded back one last vermilion handkerchief to reveal a small clutch of unassuming-looking eggs. Their colors were simple, but somehow homey. The dyes weren't exactly that vibrant; these eggs were soft greens and reds and browns, with an occasional pale violet. But the colors seemed right somehow, natural tones that seemed to perfectly match Aster's down-to-earth nature, and the colors cradled pale outlines of plants and flowers just like the ones that Aster brought the world every year.

Simple as they were, Jack felt an unbearable fondness well up inside of him. Flashy colors and glitter and exquisite artistry were one thing, but these eggs felt personal in way they had not. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but these eggs were _Aster_.

"They're not much to look at," Aster began, and Jack started when he heard the nervousness in his voice.

"I love them," he said, kneeling down beside him and reaching into the basket, letting his hands jostle against Aster's paws as he cradled a little brown egg. "They feel..." He struggled with words to explain the gentle warmth he felt inside when he looked at them. "They feel right. Like when you go outside on a perfect day."

Aster breathed in beside him, and the sound was unsteady. "They are special," he admitted. "I was thinking about what we talked about last year, how the other Guardians had been to see you. Other spirits may start to take notice of you, Jack. You... You're special."

Jack waited for a moment, hoping that Aster would elaborate on that (Special to him? Special to the moon? Special in some other unknown way?) but Aster didn't say anything. He just sighed, a regretful sound that Jack didn't like. "Some of that is probably my fault, paying such attention to you. The others were bound to notice sooner or later."

"It's okay," Jack said, and it was. He wasn't entirely sure what Aster was implying about other spirits, but he knew that just about anything was worth these yearly meetings. He didn't really like the idea of weird spirits perving on him from the bushes or something, but if it meant he got to spend this time with Aster...

Aster laughed, but it wasn't a happy sound. "It really isn't. That's why I made these eggs."

Jack frowned and picked up an egg. It seemed to call to something inside him, somehow, and it felt right to hold it close, cradle it against his chest. "What are they?" he asked, and his voice was thick.

Aster watched him do it, something indescribable passing across his face. All the words Jack could come up with felt far too melodramatic, like "longing" or "wistful", and he instantly disregarded them. "Magic," Aster finally replied. "My magic."

Jack swallowed. "What?"

"At the start of last year's growing season, I planted a few new plants in my garden. Most of them were just a few I had lying around that would make for a good color," he admitted wryly, "But a few were specifically for protection."

He paused for a moment and picked up one of the eggs, a little mauve one with what looked like the outlines of some kind of leaves, and he ran one paw pad over the design. "I tended these plants special. Put a little something extra into them, if you know what I mean."

When Jack's mother's nasturtiums bloomed particularly well, she always said that it was because they'd been planted with love, but Jack had a feeling that Aster was referring to something else. Still, his cheeks heated, and he fixed his eyes on the eggs instead of Aster's face. "Giant magic rabbit things, I'm guessing?"

Aster huffed out a laugh and elbowed him. "Something like that. It's not something I've tried in a long time, but it worked out all right. The magic took, and the plants soaked it right up. They were probably the most powerful things in my garden for a while there, and that's no small thing."

"And you used those magic plants to make these?" Jack held the egg against his chest and wondered if that was what he was feeling. He'd always thought that magic would feel like electricity, bright and stinging and flashy, but this was a different kind of warmth. It was like curling up in a pile of blankets on a cold day, that quiet, private safety that came from making a world all your own. Except this wasn't a world of his own making; it was one Aster had made for him. Maybe that was why they felt so comforting, so much like they could reach inside him and really _see_ him--and appreciate what they found. They were Aster's magic, and they made him feel the same way Aster did.

Next to him, Aster hummed assent. "Yeah. Some of them made the dyes, others I wrapped around the eggs to make the designs. They all got some of their unique qualities in there, though."

"Why?" Jack finally asked, and that was really the million dollar question, wasn't it? Why had Aster put an entire year and untold amounts of magic into making these eggs for Jack? They were friends, of course they were friends, but... He pulled his egg down away from his chest, ignoring how his heart throbbed at the loss, so he could give it a good look. For something so powerful, it sure seemed unassuming.

Aster shook his head in exasperation like Jack had asked a very silly question, and wrapped his paws around Jack's hands, the egg safe between their cupped fingers. "They'll keep you safe, ya dill. They'll shield you from other spirits' view, and protect you. And if you need me, they'll let you call me whenever you want," he said, and his voice was low and serious, as if Jack needed any help impressing how important a gift this was.

"Whenever I want?" Jack echoed. Well, if ever there was a power to be abused...

Aster's nose twitched with amusement. "Well, not whenever you want. I do have a job, you know."

Jack was glad that he was sitting down already, because he had a feeling that his knees would be feeling even more jelly-ish if he were standing. This was... Aster had always come to him once a year, no more, no less. The two of them had never really discussed this arrangement, just accepting that Easter was the one window during the year that the two of them would be in the same place at the same time. Their worlds would touch just briefly, and so could they. But this... With these eggs, Aster wasn't just extending an olive branch into his world--he was inviting Jack into his. It wasn't a gift he gave lightly, Jack was sure of it. Magic aside, Aster was intensely private, or so he'd been told. To everyone except him.

"Aster... Not that I'm not grateful, but I have to ask," Jack said, and he forced himself to look him right in the eye, "Why me?"

Aster didn't insult them both by asking for clarification. He knew exactly what Jack meant. "Because I feel like I dragged you into this mess," he started, and Jack couldn't help but laugh.

"By saving my life, you mean," he interjected.

Aster's ears went back slightly in the way that Jack had come to learn signaled annoyance. "Don't ask a question if you don't want the answer," he chided.

Jack mimed zipping his lips. Fair enough.

Aster gave Jack another waspish look before he continued, but his brow smoothed out quickly enough. "It started when I saved you, and when I asked the Man in the Moon to step in. But then I kept coming back. I don't know if you would have just gone back to being a relatively normal bloke if I'd let you alone a few years ago. Perhaps you would've. Perhaps not."

Jack waited a moment just in case more was forthcoming, but Aster just worried at his lower lip and looked pensive, so he figured he could ask a question now without interrupting. "Would that have been better?" 

He didn't think so. Even if they only met once a year, Aster had become so ingrained in his life so quickly that he couldn't bear to imagine if he hadn't. Sure, he could probably be happy. He had his skating and classes when he could get half a minute. He had friends, too, and his family. No one like Aster, though, and he knew that there would be a pooka-shaped hole in his life without him.

"I don't know," Aster finally admitted. "A selfish part of me wants to say no."

"Then say no," Jack said, not wanting to hear that "but".

Aster gave him a severe look. "I may have made you unsafe."

"And what about making me happy?" Jack asked, scooting just a little bit closer. "That has to count for something."

"You would have been happy either way, Snowbird," Aster replied, and Jack internally preened to hear the exasperated fondness in it. "You wear it like a cloak."

"Not the same way," he argued. "I wouldn't have been as happy, and I wouldn't have even known that I could've been happier. I would have been normal but--how is that better? I feel better than normal now."

"I bet you do," Aster murmured, so soft that he could barely even hear it.

"I mean it, Aster. I feel more myself when I'm with you than anywhere else, even on the ice. Maybe I would never know what that could feel like if we hadn't met again." And the thought of that made his heart twist. Being with Aster could be an emotional roller coaster, but just the simple act of _being_ was so much easier with him than it was anyone else. All the eggs in the world couldn't add up to a better gift than that.

Aster was quiet for a while where he crouched, but the silence wasn't uncomfortable. Then, "I know what you mean there, Jack."

Jack let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Then how could it be better if none of this had happened?" he asked.

"I wouldn't have to worry about you carking it all the time, for one," Aster replied, and even he didn't seem to sound sure about whether that was a joke or not.

It took Jack a second to remember exactly what that meant, but as soon as he did, everything made infinitely more sense. He knew as well as anyone the kind of loss Aster had experienced, death a thousand times over. And Jack was mortal. For someone who'd been around as long as Aster, Jack had to seem terrifyingly fragile.

Jack looked down at the basket of eggs, each one brimming with protection and care, and he knew then exactly why Aster had chosen to give him this gift. It was fondness, yes, and the tug of responsibility that Aster always seemed to feel, but it was also fear. Aster had given him Hope, and Jack had just wanted to give him happiness in return, but instead...

He swallowed hard. "Am I not good for you, Aster?"

The other Guardians had been checking in on him, and he'd thought they were just being overly cautious, but... He could see the haunted look in Aster's eyes now that he knew how to look. Was he just giving him one more person to lose?

"What?" Aster's paws tightened around Jack's hands. "What on earth are you talking about? You're perfect."

It wasn't until Jack gasped, just a little intake of breath, that Aster seemed to realize what he'd said. He instantly let go of Jack's hands and leaned back, angling away from him. "I mean--"

Jack waited.

"You're not the only one that feels better nowadays," Aster admitted in a low voice. "I feel younger than I have in years. The eggs _have_ been better. I've been doing this for a long, long time, Jack. And, truth be told, at a certain point, I started just going through the motions. Billions of eggs for millions of children that I rarely ever even got to see. And I was tired, exhausted really. It used to be a joy, painting those eggs, seeing the way kids lit up when they found them, but after awhile, it started to feel more like a job. But that's been different lately. I see new colors and designs when I'm trying to sleep again, and I know that's because of you. I thought at first that it might just be the novelty of talking to a human again, but... What was it you told me last year? 'Every year you manage to wake something up in me that I didn't even know was sleeping'? Well, there was a lot that had managed to go to sleep in this old rabbit, and it wasn't about to keep sleeping with you banging around." 

His face finally smoothed out into something wry. "Of course you're good for me, Jack. You're the best thing that's happened to me in yonks. That's the problem. You make me greedy, Snowbird. I've been selfish, coming back to you, painting a mark on your back. But it's like being a kit again, really. I can't seem to stay away."

Jack stared. At that moment, he felt the sudden mad desire to kiss him, wanted it more than he'd ever wanted to kiss anyone. But he was smitten, not stupid, so he settled for carefully, carefully placing the egg back in the basket, and then launching himself into Aster's arms.

Aster went back with a yelp, arms coming up around Jack more out of instinct than anything, and they rolled with the force of it. When the dust had cleared, Jack was on top of him, face buried in the soft fur at his neck, clinging more like a monkey than a bird. "I can't believe you even remember that," he said, voice muffled against Aster's fur.

Aster moved beneath him, and after a moment, Jack felt a hesitant claw combing its way through his hair. "I do listen when you talk, you know."

Jack squeezed his eyes tight against the feelings welling up inside him, and he took a deep breath, filling his lungs with Aster's comforting scent. Then, bolstered, he raised his head just high enough that he could catch Aster's eyes. "Then listen up, rabbit. I'm not going anywhere. I don't care if it's dangerous. I'll carry all the eggs around that you want. I'm not going to leave you any time soon, not if I can help it," he said, accentuating his words with a poke to Aster's chest.

He felt Aster shudder beneath him, a brief acknowledgment of whatever it was hanging between them right now, before he laid back to look up at the sky. "Looks like now I just have to worry about you breaking your fool neck out there on the ice."

And that reminded him. There had been a thought that had quietly formed itself sometime around when Aster had given him his new eggs. It was just the semblance of an idea then, one he'd hardly even dared to let himself consider, but here, now, lying on top of Aster and feeling the steady thump of his heartbeat, it seemed like it just might work. "Speaking of which..."

Aster looked up at him again, some alarm in his expression. Maybe that hadn't been the best segue. "No, god, I mean speaking of the skating. Not the neck breaking."

Aster relaxed incrementally then, but his expression remained quizzical.

Jack bit his lower lip and traced designs in Aster's fur absently. "It's just... Do you remember when I broke my ankle a few years ago?"

"I thought this _wasn't_ about you breaking something."

"It's not!" Jack interjected. "It's--it's just that it's been almost four years since then."

Aster's forehead creased. "Yes?"

"The Olympics are every four years, Aster."

Aster stirred at that, and he pushed himself up his elbows, forcing Jack to sit back on his lap. "Are you going?"

"Probably." That wasn't arrogance, just honesty. "We haven't had tryouts yet, but my times have been more than good enough to make the team lately. Unless something really drastic happens, I'll be there."

"There now," Aster said, finally smiling the way Jack loved best, that warm smile just for him. "I told you you'd get another chance."

"Yeah," Jack said, ducking his head. He let himself tangle his fingers in the fur at Aster's sides, discreetly watching his expressions from beneath his lashes to see if he should stop. Aster didn't seem bothered, so he counted it as a win. Maybe he could get two in a row. "You know, a lot of people will be coming to watch me in Sochi."

Aster raised an eyebrow. "Is that a hint, Snowbird?"

Jack gave him a look that he knew was distinctly shifty. "It could be."

Jack felt a rumble beneath him, and it took him a second to place it as amusement.

"Then I'll be there."

Jack's heart lifted up without his permission, flying like it did the first time he'd won a race. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. At least if you don't mind a few uninvited guests."

He tilted his head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"You said Sochi, mate. There's not anything on this world or the next that could keep North from crashing a party like that in his own backyard."

The grin that had been threatening to overtake his face just got bigger. "Perfect. I can show him exactly what I'm made of."

Aster snorted. "Well, I already know that."

"Maybe," Jack allowed, and the mere thought of it sent heat down to the tips of his toes. "But you've never seen me race."

"Frankly," Aster said, "I think I might have seen enough of you skating for a lifetime."

Jack laughed. "You say that _now._ "

Aster reached up then, and after a very brief glimpse of what looked like anxiety in his eyes, he laid his paw against his cheek. "Just try not to give me too many heart attacks this time, yeah?"

Jack covered Aster's paw with his hand and leaned into it. Below him, Aster sighed and some of the tension seemed to drain out of him. "No promises. Short track isn't for the faint of heart."

Aster sighed again, this time theatrically instead soft and sweet, and ran his thumb over Jack's cheekbone. "At least you can't fall through the ice this time." He paused, gave Jack a searching look, and Jack was sure that he was able to see the reddened skin beneath his fingers. But all he said was, "Though if anyone could..."

"Hey!" Jack shoved his chest lightly, or what he'd thought had been lightly. Either way, the surprise was enough to overbalance Aster where he rested on just one elbow, and the two of them went down in a tangle of limbs.

"You're not exactly convincing me otherwise, Snowbird," Aster panted beside him, but the light in his eyes was dancing, so Jack took care to elbow him as he sat up.

"Oh, shut up. I'll have you know that people have written entire articles about how graceful I am on the ice."

"Yeah, yeah," Aster said, rolling onto his feet. His tone was dismissive, but Jack caught a glimpse of pride in his face, so he magnanimously decided to forgive him the clumsiness cracks.

Jack looked at the eggs on the ground beside him, miraculously spared by their antics. "So how do I use these, anyway?"

Aster gave him a sidelong glance as he brushed claws through his ruffled fur. "Most of the benefits should work all right if you just stay close. If you need to summon me, well... I reckon you'll know what to do."

Jack picked up the basket as he stood, and he could still feel them calling to something in him, somewhere secret and dormant. Maybe he would, at that.

Aster was looking up at the sky then, and Jack could see it, too. It was well after sundown and the sky was growing dark. And most years, that hurt. A few hours once a year was never enough time with Aster, and not even a few stolen touches and special eggs could fix that. But this year Jack had a confession and a promise, not to mention the ability to call Aster if he really needed to. He'd be too busy preparing for the games to even start getting woebegone. After all, he needed to show off in front of all the guardians--he had no doubt that North would be bringing friends.

Jack gave Aster a smile that he hoped was encouraging. "You need to go, don't you?" he asked.

Aster's ears drooped, but he nodded. "There's a lot of clean up this year. Me and the googs might have gotten a little... enthusiastic."

"Now _that_ I'd like to see," Jack said with a grin. Maybe he even would one day.

From Aster's expression, maybe he was even thinking the same thing. There was an odd expression on his face, like someone who'd just gotten a glimpse of a good thing, the barest taste of something sweet. He took a half step towards him. "Jack..."

Jack swallowed. It was true that he was a little lovesick, but for a minute there, it almost looked as if Aster was, too. "Yeah?"

Aster watched him for a moment more, eyes intent as they searched his face. But then it was gone, closed off behind a wall that Jack wasn't particularly used to seeing. "Ah... It's nothing. You take care of those eggs, all right?"

Jack blinked at the abrupt change, and he gripped the handle of the basket tighter. "Of course. I'll make sure to keep them close." And then, as Aster started to turn away, he said, "Hey Aster? Thanks. Not just for the eggs... For everything."

A little of the warmth returned to Aster's face then, and his eyes softened even as his expression went far away. "Yeah. You too, Snowbird. Good luck with your training."

And then with a little wave he was gone, escaped down that rabbit hole that Jack wished he could follow through. And maybe he should have felt a little bereft without even a proper goodbye, but it had been a good day, and for just a moment there at the end... Jack picked up that little brown egg again, felt the warmth and protection and thrumming life. And maybe, just maybe that heavy sort of care that he could feel layered over them, that unfamiliar intent, was love.

He turned to walk home, basket swinging on his arm, and if he whistled as he walked, there was no one there to call him on it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [These eggs](http://www.food.com/recipe/onion-and-herbs-dyed-easter-eggs-451155) were my inspiration this chapter. The colors aren't quite as bright as synthetic dyes, but I still really love them! You can get tons of colors depending on which plants you experiment with.
> 
> Next time, Jack finally goes to Sochi! In other words, next time you get the only thing I ever really intended to write in the first place.


	7. Belief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack has finally made it to the Olympics. How many of his dreams will really come true?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo boy. Sorry for the delay with this last chapter, but as you can see, it's quite long. This is the last legit chapter in Believing Is Seeing, and an epilogue will be up soon. I do have a sequel planned, but I haven't yet decided how it's going to be posted. I can post it chaptered like this fic or all at once--or I can post it chaptered, but only start posting it once it's completely written. There will probably be long breaks between chapters like BIS had if I post it bit by bit, but I can guarantee that if I wait until it's completely done, it will be a long time before it's up. It's not at the top of my to write list. Anyway, if you have strong feelings on the subject, you can either drop me a comment (which are always appreciated and I love you all, my loyal readers) or send me an ask at @melissae-astron on tumblr.
> 
> This is really the only part of the fic that I was initially going to write, but Believing Is Seeing sprawled out into the monster you see before you. I have a lot of feelings about the Olympics, about the reporting shown in the US and about the international politics and about that beautiful, amazing moment when an athlete realizes that all their work finally paid off. I tried to funnel some of those feelings into this last chapter. The reporter in the first chunk of the fic may or may not be based on a real person. But just in case that real person has lawyers, all resemblance to actual people is purely coincidental!
> 
> And because today is Author Appreciation Day, good work and good luck to my fellow writers. ♥

"So how does it feel to be back in the Olympic stadium, Jack?"

Jack shifted uncomfortably and tried not to look at the camera. He had become relatively used to sports interviews over the years, but the reporters who covered the Olympics always seemed particularly bloodthirsty. His coach had warned him that he was going to be asked about his injury, but that didn't mean he had to like it. 

The reporter leaned in. "I mean, we were all just devastated when you had to leave so early in Vancouver. Devastated."

Jack fought to keep from wrinkling his nose. He'd been a step above unknown during the last Olympics. No one had been particularly devastated when he'd been hurt--in fact, the reporters had seized on him like vultures on meat. Anything for a story, though. 

"Do you look at this as a chance for redemption, Jack?"

Oh, was it his turn to talk now? He cleared his throat. "Well, it was just an accident, so I don't know if I really feel the need for 'redemption', but I am looking forward to finally getting a chance to show everyone what I can do," he said.

Her lips dipped slightly, but she covered her slip with a bright smile. "That's great to hear, Jack, just great. I'm sure you'll make us all proud."

She tilted her head slightly, and Jack sensed that she was internally going over a set of notes. "You've gained a lot of fans since the last games, Jack. Has that changed the way you've looked at competing?"

Finally, Jack cracked a real smile. "Yeah, my fans have been amazing." He ran a hand through his hair. He couldn't exactly tell her how surreal it'd felt the first time he'd received a letter from a child who wanted to grow up to be a skater just like him. He'd checked the address about three times just to make sure it had actually been for him. After the shock had worn off a little, though, chatting with his younger fans had become as easy as breathing. He loved skating, and he loved seeing some of that enthusiasm pass onto the kids after he answered their questions or signed an autograph. They shined just a little brighter after that, and that felt as good as a hundred wins. Well. Maybe a dozen wins. "I really hope I don't let any of them down."

She smiled at him, bright and plastic. "Oh, I'm not sure you could, Jack! You know what they've been calling you, right?"

"Oh god." He covered his face with one hand to hide whatever expression would be there. He had a feeling it was somewhere around pleased bemusement. 

She laughed, and this time it actually sounded genuine. "I guess you do! What with the hair and the eyes and the skating, you can't really blame them, can you?" She paused and shook her head. "Jack Frost. It really suits you."

He shrugged and scratched at the back of his head. "I guess." He had mixed feelings about it, honestly. It was a cute name, and he could definitely see where they were getting it. But every time he heard that his white hair made him look just like a little frost pixie, or maybe a ghost, he couldn't help but remember how he'd gotten it. It made the frost part seem a little less funny. His years around Aster had helped melt some of the rough edges off the memory, but it still wasn't one of his favorites.

"Tell me, Jack. Are there any other cute nicknames floating around for one of skating's coolest new stars?"

In retrospect, she'd really just wanted to use that pun on national television. But maybe it was the electric charge that seemed to permeate the air here, making him scattered and bold. Maybe it was just the way that he was still thinking about the only warm thing that had been in that black, icy water. But before he could take it back, the words were out. "One of my friends calls me Snowbird, I guess."

From the way her eyes lit up, he instantly knew he'd made a big mistake. "Snowbird. That is a cute one! I bet the kids will love that."

He winced. That one was definitely going to be repeated ad nauseam on NBC, and he was sure that Emma was going to grill him about the identity of this "friend" the minute his family's plane touched Russian soil. He shifted from foot to foot. Why couldn't she just ask about his training or something? He could talk about that all day-- _without_ sticking his foot in his mouth.

He saw a cameraman motion to the reporter and barely kept from breathing a sigh of relief. Thank god for these little bite sized interviews. He'd be snatched up again later, but for now, he was almost off the hook.

"Well, I've gotta run, so I'll just ask one more thing. Have you got any advice for the kids watching at home?"

He grinned. "Yeah. Sometimes things are really hard, and it feels like you'll never make it. But you should never give up hoping. You may end up taking a different path, but you'll still get there. Just remember to have fun with the things that you love--heck, try to have fun even with the things you hate. It'll make the hard parts a lot easier."

That had certainly been what had carried him through it. Even on the days when he ached to the point of tears, he held on tight to that little sunburst of hope Aster had put inside him and reminded himself why he was working so hard. Every excruciating exercise was so he could feel the wind on his face again, and even wobbling around on the ice was a hell of a lot more fun than life off of it. Remembering that spark of joy that he was reaching out for had been exactly what he'd needed, and jokes and games had made the months go by a lot faster.

The reporter turned to face the camera, thousand watt smile firmly in place. "You heard it straight from the Snowbird himself, Mr. Jack "Frost" Overland. Hang on tight to your dreams, kids."

"And we're out."

Both Jack and the reporter sagged a little once the camera was turned off. She turned to him. "Do you really believe all that?" she asked, face relaxed into a much more natural quizzical expression.

He quirked his lips into a sideways smile. "Sometimes that belief is all I have." And then he was grabbing his bag and taking his leave. He was scheduled for some ice time and he didn't want to miss a minute of it.

* * *

Jack had heard that the opening ceremonies were always spectacular, a seriously mind-blowing explosion of celebrities, special effects, and nationalistic posturing, but whatever they were like that first evening, he didn't remember any of it. The whole thing was a blur of sights and sounds and so much adrenaline that he could feel himself shaking with it. Even the roar of the American portion of the crowd when Team USA made its entrance during the parade was somehow a dulled sensation, mixed in as it was with every other thing he had to take in. Distantly, he was aware that like the rest of his team, he was recording most of it on his phone. He was glad for it; maybe he'd be able to retroactively remember it when he watched the recording.

He didn't feel fully centered again until he was finally back on the ice. Incongruously, the world felt most solid when it was slipping beneath his feet, and he felt like he was breathing himself back in as he moved. The noisy announcements and the chatter of multiple teams in even more languages fell away in favor of his own breaths. The worries and anxiety that had been his constant companion since he boarded his plane finally seemed to calm, and he found himself grinning with the sheer freedom of it. Five thousand miles away from his house, he was home.

During his cool down period, he finally allowed himself to think about the spectators. There would be his family, of course, and fans from all over the world. Those he'd already thought about a fair amount; it was hard not to with everyone asking him about them. But the last group, the most unusual of them all, was the one that he'd tried his very best not to think too much about. There were just too many questions. How was Santa going to hide in a crowd of people this big? What did the Sandman even look like, and was his sand going to grit up the ice? Was the Tooth Fairy half as frightening as she sounded? And finally, the one that had been worrying at a corner of his heart for months: was Aster really going to come?

Just the thought of it made his heart hammer in his chest. They were standing on the precipice of something big, the two of them, and Jack had no idea what it was. All he knew was that if Aster was really there watching him, Jack had to skate the race of his life. He just had to. He always had fun showing someone new his moves, but this was someone who was both old and new, a part of him in a way that no one else was. It was going to be fun and it was going to be exhilarating, and it was going to be _terrifying_. He'd trained the months leading up to the Olympics like he never had before, and his rising personal bests were surprising even his coach. Most people just put it down to the gold fever that most Olympians seemed to get right before the games, and that was likely part of it, but there was something even deeper, an intrinsic need somewhere in him to prove himself. The human world was going to see what he could really do this week, and so was someone just a half step to the left of it.

He tied his sneakers with trembling fingers and grabbed his bottle of water on the way out. Maybe he had time to do a few more stair climbs before dinner. He was going to need them.

* * *

It was a good thing that Jack had trained his entire life to perform under pressure, because the morning of the 500m, he had never felt more nervous in his life. He skated around the ice a few times, warming up with the rest of the skaters in his heat, and he did his best to focus on the ice and nothing but. He could see his family out there in the stands, already making a ruckus like they always did, but it wasn't even just them out there waving signs with his name on it. There were people he didn't even know cheering him on out there. He tried to take some form of comfort in that. At least those people believed in him, even if he wasn't 100% sure he did.

The race, when it finally came, felt surprisingly like any other one. He took his mark, he crouched down, and when the shot came... there was just the ice. He took to it like he always did. He flew. Distantly, he could sense the other skaters around him, but only to the point where he could avoid them. He wove around his competitors as he skated, and he could feel it, wasn't even surprised when he easily made second.

Heats, though, were just heats, and he refused to let himself come down from the high. He felt that energy jangling through his nerves, lighting him up inside, and by the time the quarters came and went, by the time the semis finally arrived, it had reached a fever pitch.

And then the man behind him clipped him. The real world intruded with a nudge and a spin, and it was almost with surprise that he hit the wall. It had been clear interference, even the fans up in the stands could see it, and he was passed on to the finals without much fuss. Still, though, the moment, the high was gone. He placed fifth.

When it was all over, he clung to the wall, breathing hard. It was the exertion, of course, but it was also coming down from a kind of adrenaline rush so intense that it had almost been a zen state. The knowledge, when it finally hit him, came like a brick.

_He'd made the finals._ His first time competing at the Olympics and he'd _finaled_.

The last of the adrenaline left him in a whoop. The world seemed to come back into focus then, and he could hear his family screaming his name, strangers doing it too, and he could hear one other thing... He turned, trying to place the odd squeak, and caught a glimpse of something small and very, very colorful disappear into his bag. He made a move towards it, but only managed to grab his bag and cap his skates before the reporters were on him.

He answered the same questions over and over for what felt like ages. Yes, he was thrilled by his Olympic debut. No, he was not disappointed not to medal, are you kidding? Yes, this atmosphere felt _amazing_. All the while he could feel something squirming against his hand, only a thin layer of fabric separating them. His first thought when he'd seen it had been maybe a bird of some kind, but judging by the tingle he could feel where it brushed against his fingers, he had a feeling that it was probably something he should keep hidden from the media.

When they'd finally gone and he had a second to breathe, he burst from the arena into a quieter area, a hallway of some kind, and opened his bag. Inside, curiously looking through his shoes, was what could only be--

"Are you a fairy?" he asked, voice hushed as he let his fingers brush against tiny violet feathers.

Her head popped out of his shoe and she fixed him with a brilliant smile. Jack could hear Aster's words in his head. Pixies bad, fairies good. Certainly, he couldn't see anything wrong with the chittering little creature that was flying out of his bag and... Messing with his teeth?

"Hey, what are you doing?" he asked as best he could around tiny fingers. Then, "Wait a second. Are you... the Tooth Fairy?"

"Oh no," said a voice behind him, cheerfully apologetic, "That would be me."

He whirled around, dislodging the little fairy with an irritable little squeak. Floating there above him, suspended on gossamer wings, was a much larger version of the little fairy he'd found in his bag. Even under the industrial lighting, she was iridescent, one color flowing into the next so seamlessly that it almost confused his eyes. The smile she fixed on him was friendly and filled with a kind of sweetness that made his heart ache.

"Oh jeez," he muttered to himself, not quite able to take his eyes from what was a very, very undeniably magical creature.

"Oh," she said, face falling a bit, "We didn't mean to startle you. They just get so excitable sometimes, especially when they meet someone with such lovely teeth."

"No, it's okay!" he said, even if he wasn't entirely sure that it was. The way she was looking at his teeth was a little unnerving. "Um. I just. I wasn't expecting..." He trailed off, looking her over. "Is it okay for you to be out here? I mean, with everyone around?"

Her smile this time was a little mischievous, and somehow, this set him more at ease. Did all Guardians have that same streak of trouble? "None of the adults can see us here, Jack. It's a little hard to avoid the cameras sometimes, but it's amazing what people don't see when they're not looking," she said.

"There are a lot of kids here, though," he said, thinking back to some of the children he'd seen in the stands with posterboard larger than they were. "Isn't it a problem if they see you?"

"Not really." Her smile brightened. "This place is already like magic for them. Getting a little glimpse of a Guardian would be a great memory, wouldn't it?"

"I guess..." he said, and he did see her point. The memories being made here would last a lifetime, and if they were a little bit limned with real magic, well, maybe when they were grown they would just put it down to the excitement. And in the meantime, what a treat seeing a fairy would be! He found himself grinning back at the thought of it.

Her smile went a little dewy-eyed and she sighed. "You really do have a beautiful smile. No wonder you managed to catch Bunny's attention."

His stomach twisted. "Oh, yeah. Um..." He paused, trying to think of a casual way to ask about Aster.

Her smile was replaced with something a little more knowing, and Jack suddenly understood what Aster had meant about crossing the Tooth Fairy. "He's here, too, somewhere. He'll probably be upset that I got to you before he did," she said, and there was definitely a mischievous note in her voice now.

It resonated with Jack, and he felt his eyebrows raising in exaggerated response. "Oh?"

"Oh yes," she said, flitting closer so she could take his hands in hers. "Bunny's been _so_ excited about seeing you skate, not that he'd admit it. You know how he gets."

Jack did his best to hide the way that her words went down like hot chocolate, warm and filling and sweet, instead ducking his head and grinning. "Yeah. He likes to pretend he's too tough for that kind of thing."

She laughed then, a sound like tinkling bells, and her smile grew a little truer. "He does, doesn't he? But we know better." Her gaze sharpened a little, focusing on something just behind him. "Did you hear that, Bunny? Jack can see right through you."

For the second time in as many minutes, Jack spun around so fast that he was almost dizzy with it. The Tooth Fairy let go of his hands with a little giggle as he went.

Aster looked distinctly out of place there in the hallway instead of amongst nature, and the disgruntled expression on his face didn't help. "I leave you alone for ten minutes and you're already conspiring with him, Tooth," he said, sounding irritated.

Tooth gave him a sunny grin, acting for all the world like he'd greeted her with a hug and a kiss. "We were just waiting for you to catch up, Bunny."

Jack bit his lip, trying to get his head around the weirdness of it all. He'd never actually seen Aster interact with anyone else before, and it was disorienting. He was almost positive that the scowl he was giving Tooth was all for show, but it was so far outside his comfort level that he honestly wasn't sure. "Um..." he ventured, feeling a sort of shyness that he'd never felt around him before. "Hi?"

Aster's face did something complicated, a softness around the eyes warring with the frown on his lips. When he finally spoke, his tone was rueful, "Hello there, Snowbird."

Tooth covered her giggle with one of her hands. "You started that, didn't you, Bunny? That sounds like one of yours."

"Oh jeez," Jack groaned rubbing his brow with the heel of one of his hands. "'Started'?"

"It's what all your fans out in the stands are calling you!" she said. Then she paused and gave Aster a significant look. "All the children, anyway."

Aster flatly ignored her, instead looking to Jack and raising an eyebrow.

He shrugged sheepishly. "It accidentally slipped in an interview."

"It's cute, Bunny," Tooth said, bumping Aster's arm with her own. "And it suits him. Did you know he could fly like that on the ice?"

Jack's breath caught in his throat even as he fought to keep his face neutral. Fifth place in the goddamn Olympics, but it still felt like everything was resting on one person's opinion of him.

Aster opened his mouth to speak, then hesitated, eyes searching Jack's face. That's when he knew the jig was up; he'd never been able to hide his feelings very well from Aster. Maybe that was why Aster sighed like he'd lost at a game of his own. The smile he gave him then was much more what Jack was used to, subdued and secretly tender, the soft underbelly of a fighter. "I'd an inkling, but I wasn't expecting something like that. It was a beautiful run," he admitted.

"Wasn't it?" Tooth asked. "We were all so surprised!" She laughed softly at the memory. "I thought Bunny was about to stop breathing!"

"Hey now!" Aster interrupted, and flustered. His ears quivered with it, and he crossed his arms protectively over his chest.

Jack kind of wanted to climb him like a tree. Tooth was still there, though, as was his sense of self-preservation, so he manfully resisted.

"Are you coming to the next race?" he asked, and didn't even bother trying to hide his own nervous excitement. The cat was well out of the bag by then.

Aster and Tooth exchanged confused looks. "There are more?" she ventured.

That startled a laugh out of him. Old as the hills and twice as knowledgeable, but that didn't mean that they were willing to sit still long enough to read a program. "I'm competing in three more races. This was just the 500 meter skate; there's also the 1000 meter, the 1500 meter, and the relay," he told them.

The tiny fairy made herself known once again, darting out from where she'd been hovering just behind Tooth's shoulder so she could tug at one sweaty lock of his hair. She chittered wildly, but Jack couldn't quite catch what she was so excited about.

Tooth just laughed, though, and tugged the little fairy back out of Jack's personal space. "Don't worry, we're definitely coming!" She gave Jack an impish little grin. "She's very excited to see you skate again." And then she gave Aster a little sidelong look, one with surprising gentleness. "And she's not the only one. It was so exciting, Jack!"

The little fairy nodded and put a tiny hand to her chest, sighing dramatically.

Tooth nodded. "All the girls were very worried about your teeth. You _are_ taking care of them, right, Jack?" she asked, suddenly quite stern despite her smile.

Jack looked over at Aster, who just shrugged. "Um..." He dug through his bag, noting the traces of what had to be fairy dust in the creases of his track suit. He brushed that aside as he found what he'd actually been looking for. "Well, we do wear these guards when we're on the ice? And it's not like hockey, there are no projectiles or anything."

The look Tooth gave his mouthguard was distinctly unimpressed. "At those speeds, you _are_ a projectile, Jack."

Next to them, Aster snickered, and Jack shot him a dirty look. "I haven't hurt anything yet!" he protested.

"A few broken bones aside," Aster put in not-so-helpfully.

"That was one time!"

"Seems to me one time's enough for something like that."

"Excuse me, one bad fall is nothing for a speed skater."

"You're not helping your case here, Jacko."

Tooth looked between them, biting her bottom lip to keep in another laugh. "You two really are good friends, aren't you?" she asked, and there was a fondness in her tone that was almost too warm, too new for Jack to accept from someone he'd just met. But maybe it was all for Aster. Maybe it was just Tooth.

Aster, for his part, had fallen back into his defensive posture. "What of it?"

Tooth just smiled again and shook her head. She flitted over to Aster, leaned in close so she could whisper something into one of his long ears, then pulled back again, clasping her hands in front of herself and grinning. "I have to get this little one back to her sisters," she told Jack, nodding to the little fairy that was examining his mouthguard with no little interest, "But it really was nice to meet you, Jack. I hope we get to talk again soon."

"Yeah, me too," Jack said, and grinned back. He couldn't help it. Tooth's cheer was absolutely infectious. He turned to the little fairy, who was giving him her very best approximation of a hang dog expression. "And I'll see you, too, Baby Tooth."

She perked up at that and darted in close so she could peck at his cheek, quick and sweet, before flying back behind Tooth, who had covered her mouth with her hands.

"Oh dear. It seems like someone's got a little crush... Sorry about that, Jack."

He shook his head and hoped he wasn't blushing as much as he suspected he was. "No, um... It's fine. I guess."

He heard Aster scoff at that, so yeah, the blush was probably pretty pronounced. He hoped that that little fairy would be okay with disappointment, though, because she wasn't the only one a little bit enamored of someone in that room.

Tooth shooed the fairy away, a twist at the corner of her lips betraying her amusement. "I think we'd better go. Goodbye, Jack, Bunny. Good luck on your next race!" she said before zipping away almost faster than Jack's eyes could follow.

"...bye," he answered back lamely, well aware that she was already gone. He turned to Aster, who was shifting from paw to paw, maybe as uncomfortable in this strange new circumstance as Jack was. "Is she always that..."

"Hyper?" Aster finished, eyebrows raised. "Yes."

"Ah."

"Smart as a whip, though, that one. She's in charge of Memory and she never forgets a thing, which is a right good thing when she's commanding a small army every night."

"So all those little fairies...?"

"Go out and get the teeth for her while she stays back at the Tooth Palace. I'm not sure she's really been out in the real world in a few hundred years, so I imagine she's a bit stir crazy," Aster said thoughtfully, then shook his head ruefully. "Never a dull moment with Tooth."

Jack watched the look on Aster's face when he talked about her, and remembered the fond, familiar way she'd looked at Aster even at his most waspish. "You two have known each other for a long time, huh?"

Aster frowned and his ears went back just a bit as he thought. "Must be a good seven hundred years now, yeah."

"Seven hundred _years?_ "

Aster smirked at the goggle-eyed look on his face. "That's not so long for a pair of spirits. She and North are downright young compared to me'n Sandy."

Aster had told him once that he was older than the entire world, so that wasn't exactly surprising. But somehow, hearing it put into years made it seem so much longer. It was too hard to get his head around the age of planets, but centuries? Centuries he could do. And Aster had a lot of centuries under his bandolier. This probably wasn't his first Olympics. Hell, he could have been at the first Olympics, for all Jack knew.

Jack swallowed, head dizzy with it all, and Aster must have sensed that. He stepped closer and nudged Jack's shoulder with his own. "But don't you go worrying your pretty little head over things like that, Snowbird. I told you already. Sometimes us older spirits need a good kick in the pants to be reminded to live a little."

Jack made a little face at the "pretty" crack, but he let it slide. Just this once. "What, like a kid nearly drowning himself?" he joked.

Aster shrugged. "Or a damn good show to get the old blood pumping."

Finally, Jack cracked a grin. "So you really liked it?"

"Liked it? It was bloody amazing, Jack," he said, and there was a spark in his eye that Jack didn't think was feigned. And, well, Aster had admitted in the past that he was a bit of an adrenaline junkie. Watching short track was about as exciting as it got.

Jack beamed. "You just wait. I'm even better at the long races."

"Is that right?" Aster said.

"Yep," Jack answered. "Still think you could beat me in a race?"

Aster's mouth twisted. "You remember that, do you?"

"Of course."

"Well... Maybe not on the ice. Pooka weren't meant for slipping and sliding around like you lot."

Jack laughed, and just like that, the tension he'd been holding just below his shoulders finally broke. The odd distance between them, made wider with people and millennia between them, cinched tight again with the sound of his snickers, the most familiar sound between them. And Jack grabbed Aster's paws, squeezed tight, leaned into him. "Thank you. For coming, I mean."

Aster shook his head above him, no doubt at Jack's weird behavior, but he squeezed Jack's hands back, only freeing one so he could slide a paw down Jack's back. "I said I would, didn't I?"

The feeling of rough pads and the slightest hint of claws was comforting and familiar, and Jack shivered beneath it, suddenly very aware that he was still just in his uniform. He'd only had time to switch his skates out for sneakers before he'd been accosted by a pair of fairies. The clothes he'd packed to wear over his uniform were still in his bag, and so only the thinnest layer of fabric separated them now. That was probably his cue to pull away, make his excuses until he could at least put real clothes on, but... It had been a year, after all. Jack couldn't seem to make himself move back, instead turning his nose into Aster's fur and inhaling the familiar scent. "Yeah. You did."

"And a pooka never goes back on his word. Fair dinkum."

Jack's shoulders shook beneath Aster's arm. "I have no idea what that even means."

Aster squeezed his hand again, warningly this time. "Use your context clues, ya dill. It's not that hard."

Jack shook his head, enjoying the way Aster's fur rubbed against his cheeks. "There you go again with that strange, foreign language."

"For--I'll show you a foreign language," Aster huffed. And then he was saying something--something _else_ , slippery, sibilant sounds that rumbled low in his chest, further down than usual, almost against Jack's breastbone.

Jack looked up, alarm and curiosity warring for dominance. "What was that?"

Aster rapped lightly on the back of his head with his claws, prompting a scowl. "The old language. The one I used to use with my clan way back when."

Jack rubbed the back of his head with his free hand. "And what did you say?"

Aster's nose crinkled up with amusement. "That I can't repeat in front of polite ears."

Jack pulled back a bit and looked around the deserted corridor. "I don't see any of those."

Aster snickered at that and reeled him back in, fixing his arms comfortably down at Jack's waist. "Maybe when you're a bit older I'll teach you those words."

Jack allowed himself to be pulled back in, unable and unwilling to do anything else when Aster was concerned, but he did fix him with his flattest and most unimpressed look. "And what about now?"

Aster sighed thoughtfully, resting his head against the top of Jack's. "How about this?" he asked, and turned his head so he could murmur more nonsense sounds against Jack's ear.

"What's that one?" he asked, and he knew that Aster had to feel the way his heart was beating double time against his own chest.

He felt a smile against his hair. "Good luck."

Jack swallowed against the surge of emotion making its way up his throat. And there it was, that sweet warmth that he only seemed to feel in Aster's arms. It seeped into his bones, lit up his veins with a sort of hope that could probably only be felt this close to the source. He swallowed again, and was pleased when his voice didn't even shake. "Yeah, yeah. Like I'll need it."

* * *

Training waited for no man (or spirit, for that matter) and Jack barely managed to see any of the Guardians over the next couple days. Even if he hadn't need to train for his own events, the rest of the team was depending on him to be at his very best for the team relay later in the week. He was not about to let them down. And even when they weren't working up a sweat, they were still orbiting in each others' space, laughing, comparing tiny rooms, syncing up as best they could for the days to come. The few moments not claimed by his team were helpfully filled in by his family, who was so full of supportive energy that he couldn't help but get fired up just by their presence.

Jack wasn't lonely, per se. How could he be, with so many people that he loved surrounding him? But it did niggle at him, knowing that there was another set of friends just out of sight. They were certainly watching, he knew that. It wasn't unusual for him to find golden sand in his shoes when he got back to his bench, or a mechanical trinket beneath his bag. There was even the occasional egg, tucked away and tiny, as if Aster had been following around quail or something for the perfect travel eggs. (Did his eggs even come from birds? Jack sure as hell hoped that Aster wasn't laying them himself, but who knew with that one?)

When the evening of the 1000m came, Jack found himself scanning the crowd during his warm up laps. He didn't see the Guardians in the stands, but that wasn't exactly shocking. They did need to stay at least partially hidden. Maybe if he got a moment to say hello to Aster after the race, he'd ask him where they were watching from.

That particular day, he breezed through the heats, and despite a couple wobbles during the quarterfinals managed to get to the semis with a very respectable time. This was where he'd flubbed last time, though, and he wasn't about to make the same mistake twice. Today Jack ignored the siren call of the ice as best he could so he could keep both eyes on his opponents. It was a wise call; when the inevitable crack up finally came, he was well out of harm's way. For the first time that competition, he skated over the finish line first.

That high carried him through a shaky final skate. He lost his footing slightly, just slightly out of the gate. In a normal race, he would have been able to make up for that sort of flub easily, but this was no normal race. These were the best skaters in the entire world, and the smallest mistake decided medals in a race like this. There were just no openings, no places to fit himself into, breeze through like the wind through naked branches, and when he placed a millisecond behind third, he knew that it was nothing to be ashamed of. Every single one of them had had a great skate, maybe the best of their lives, himself included. And when he got his goggles off and got a good look at the crowd, they were going _insane_.

There was the smallest bit of frustration scraping along his nerves because he'd been so incredibly close--but the crowd's enthusiasm lifted him up, eased that disappointment, left him with the fact that he'd broken his own record. No, he told himself, high-fiving a little girl as he skated by a group of German fans, there was absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. 

By the time he finally made it off the ice, he was grinning and ready for the media.

Later, when every one of the major media outlets had been let down easy, he was finally allowed to breathe. He took care to actually get his jacket on this time before he left the rink and took to exploring the labyrinthine corridors in the building.

As far as he could tell, everyone was still back at the rink. Everyone except-- "Aster!"

Aster's ears perked up at the sound of his name. "That was quite a skate, Jack."

Jack grinned, and it felt even truer than it had coming off the ice. "Personal best!" he said, giving him a thumbs up.

This time, Aster was the one who pulled him into a hug, ruffling his hair and squeezing him tight. "Good job, Snowbird. Knew you had it in you."

Jack ducked his head to hide the way he grinned and flushed beneath the praise. "Thanks. You know, you're the first person who hasn't asked me if I'm disappointed."

Aster's eyebrows went up. "Disappointed? In that?"

Jack's mouth twisted just slightly, a sarcastic edge inside him cutting into his joy. "Yeah. If you don't medal, clearly you're a disappointment to home and country or something."

Aster made an annoyed sound in the back of his throat. "They sure didn't seem disappointed to me."

"Yeah," Jack agreed, and he couldn't help it. He grinned again just thinking about the way a boy in the first row had screamed himself hoarse. "The energy here is amazing."

Aster released him then, rolling his shoulders experimentally. "It feels good here. There are a lot of strong feelings. Memories and Hope and Wonder and Dreams. Even the adults are feeling 'em here."

Jack certainly had. He'd managed to sit in on a few events, a few of his friends from Team USA hooking him up with some tickets they'd gotten to their own events, and sitting in the stands was almost better than being out there competing. It was an emotional roller coaster out there. There was a bated breath before every shot that was full of hope, and there was a particular kind of wonder that came every time he found himself thinking, _'How the hell did she_ do _that?'_. Every one of them had dreams, they wouldn't have made it there without them. And Tooth was right; the memories being made there were going to stick with them for the rest of their lives. It was insane.

"My favorite part is just how _happy_ everyone is, though," he said. "We're all here because we love it. Like it's terrifying, don't get me wrong. But it's also a lot of fun. It's incredible competing against people who are this good, and seeing how fired up the audience gets." And there was that moment, his favorite moment. It was when the winner looked up at their score and it finally sank in that they'd done it, that all their hard work had paid off. That look of pure joy on their faces was incredible. (Though of course it was a lot less incredible when it was on his _opponents'_ faces.)

Aster watched him, his eyes hovering between warm and thoughtful. "You belong here, Snowbird. You're fair glowing with it."

Jack grinned. "Yeah, the stakes are high, but that's how I like them." The exhilaration was something else, all right.

Aster snorted at that. "Somehow that doesn't surprise me."

"Come on, Aster," he coaxed. "Tell me it's not more fun that way."

"Fun, he says," Aster said, rolling his eyes. "Some of us like our hearts to have a nice, steady beat, thanks."

Now it was Jack's turn to roll his eyes. "Yeah, right. Like you're not out there yelling with the rest of them. I know you, E. Aster Bunnymund. You love a good race."

Aster pursed his lips and his eyes went shifty.

Jack knocked their legs together. "Don't lie to me. I'll ask Tooth, and she'll tell me just to see you make noises."

Aster's eyes widened with actual alarm. "Fine! Yes, there may have been some yelling." Then his nose wrinkled. "Like you could even hear it next to North's bellowing."

Just thinking about it made Jack snicker. "I bet." Then he had a thought. "What about Sandy? What's he like?"

Aster shrugged. "Sandy's a quiet kind of bloke, but he has fun. 'Sides, the rest of us more than make up for him."

Jack thought about the four of them then, huddled together somewhere in the stands, cheering their hearts out. "You guys are actually like a family, aren't you?"

Aster blinked at him, clearly nonplussed. "Well, if families generally live in opposite parts of the world and yell at each other every time they're trapped in the same room..."

"I don't know," Jack said, reaching up to tug playfully at one of Aster's ears. "Seems about right to me."

"Oi, stop that," Aster said, batting his hands away.

The words _'make me'_ were on the tip of his tongue, but he just barely bit them back. Knowing his luck, Aster probably would. Instead, he just stroked the fur at the base of his ears soothingly before pulling back.

Aster's eyes went a little droopy at that, and Jack knew that he had the advantage. Ever shameless, he pushed it. "Hey, where are you guys hiding during the games, anyway? I keep looking for you before my races, but I can't see you."

"There's an alcove," Aster replied absently. Then, "Near one of the stairwells. I'll have Sandy get your attention next time."

Well, that worked well. Jack filed that information away for next time he needed to defuse Aster's anger. But for now... "You know, speaking of families, mine is here somewhere."

Aster's eyes refocused a little. "Is that right?"

"Yeah, and..." Jack looked at his watch. "It's been almost thirty minutes since the end of that race, so I am willing to bet that they're looking for me."

Aster's brows went down. It wasn't a usual thing that Jack ran out of time for him, after all. "You should be going, then. Wouldn't want them to worry." Then he hesitated for just a moment. "But before you go..."

"Yeah?"

"Got another phrase for you to practice."

Oh, this would be good. Jack had lost the last one almost as soon as he'd heard it, but he was determined to get it right this time. "What is it?"

Aster gave him a little smile then, and if Jack hadn't known better, he'd almost say that it was a little shy. He took one of Jack's hands in his and then used one claw to draw something on his palm. It might have been letters, it might have been pictures; Jack wasn't really sure. But then Aster was talking again, and it was all Jack could do just to hold onto the sounds as they slipped between his fingers like silk.

He tested the unfamiliar sounds on his tongue. "How was that?"

Aster made a tiny sound, somewhere between exasperated and wistful. "Terrible."

"Well, excuse me for not catching onto ancient alien languages the second I hear them," Jack said, scowling. "Jeez. I don't even know French."

Aster just shook his head, fortunately with fondness. "We'll train your tongue up yet, Snowbird."

Jack just stared at him for a second. He... had to know what that sounded like, right? When he finally managed to ask, "So, what does that mean?" his voice was weak.

Aster smirked, and Jack was still only about 50/50 on whether that double entendre had been purposeful. "Congratulations."

* * *

Jack practiced. He turned the sounds around in his mind as he ate lunch with his sister and dodged her perpetual questions about when he was ever going to get a date. He repeated them to himself with each step when he jogged in the morning. He mouthed them to himself as he skated, lap after lap with his team. But still they were just sounds. He couldn't quite get them to coalesce into words, no matter how often he tried to assign meaning to them. He wasn't even sure he'd heard them right.

He was pleased to have the distraction. His last solo event was creeping up at lightning speed, and the headlines were only getting more pointed. "Jack Frost Disappointed Again at 1000m." "From The Jaws of Victory, A Defeat." "Will Team USA Ever Medal At Sochi?"

By the time the actual event was ready to start, Jack was completely on edge. The entire world was watching him, and with ever-mounting expectations. He was skating in slow circles, loosening up, trying his best to get his breaths to match each smooth stroke against the ice, when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He drifted to a stop, well out of the way of the other skaters who were warming up, and looked up. Had a bird gotten into the building somehow? But no, no one else was looking up at the twinkling bird of light up above them. No one except the children. He saw one or two of them staring up at it with wide eyes, looking very much how he felt, and he suddenly knew exactly what he was looking at.

He followed the bird's flight as best as he could as it flitted among the rafters before coming down to light next to a shadowy little pocket of the bleachers that he hadn't noticed before. It was an unpopular area for seating; there was an ad blocking a fair amount of the sight line, and the wall of the stairwell cut it off from view of most of the other seats. But he could just barely make out a golden sparkle behind it, and a sudden warmth filled him up, and his jangling nerves were put to rest. Even if he had the expectations of the world sitting on him, he was not alone.

He took his place at the starting line, and he went.

He kept the image of the dreamsand bird in his mind's eye as he skated, leaning forward as if somehow he could catch it if he skated just a little faster. He came in first in his heat, and then again in the quarter finals. He knew what the commentators were probably saying right then, that Jack Frost was finally living up to his name, that he was flying through the competition. But Jack didn't care what they were saying about him, not anymore. Not now that he knew what it really felt like to fly.

He sailed through the semifinals easily, so easily that he almost wondered how he'd had so much trouble before. The finals, though, the finals were always something else. He may have been chasing an idea, the faintest trace of gold, but so were they. But skating was just made up of good days and bad days, over and done with in the blink of an eye, and Jack was having a _good_ day. The openings presented themselves to him, and he took each of them in turn. It was around the twelfth lap that his lungs started to burn, and his legs with them, but by then he was in the home stretch. And when he finally crossed the finish line, it took him a moment to realize what he'd done, to absorb that he hadn't just placed in the semis this time. He hadn't seen someone's back as he'd crossed the finish line; he'd been right next to them. And he'd earned the USA a silver medal.

The roar of the crowd was unbelievable, and more unbelievable still was the knowledge that somewhere in that almighty bellow were the voices of spirits. But belief was power, he'd come to understand, and so as incredible as it all seemed, he forced his mind to clear and accept that it had really come to pass. He shot his family, his fans, a quick thumbs up, and then skated off the ice. He capped his skates almost on autopilot, ears and mind and heart overfull to bursting and unable to really cope with the small things.

For once, the media was less of a gauntlet and more fun, a flurry of congratulations and how-do-you-feels that he could finally answer both honestly and positively. He felt _amazing_ , even if he wasn't allowed to sneak away this time. He was barely even given time to get dressed between the reporters and the podium.

The Guardians hadn't left, either, though. Even as he took his place with the other medalists, he could see celebratory sparks shooting off around their little alcove, golden sand streaming down in their wake, and his grin was so huge that it almost hurt. The weight of the medal against his chest felt surreal, but he had to admit that it probably wasn't any more surreal than the rest of his life. Somewhere in that crowd, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, and the goddamn _Easter Bunny_ were celebrating his success.

It was more than he could hold in, so he waved and grinned and grinned and grinned.

* * *

It was a long time before Jack managed to extricate himself from media and well-wishers. He understood it, really. A silver was the best that an American had managed in men's short track that Olympics. Canada had predictably swept the golds, and South Korea and Russia had also made strong showings. So this success, his success, was already being spun as the nation's success in a way. People were psyched. _He_ was psyched, for that matter.

He still was, even by the time he finally got away. He was buzzing with it, and when he burst into the weird, quiet part of the building that he was beginning to suspect was just a bit magical, it was with an exuberance that was a bit much, even for him. Aster was there waiting for him, idly leaning against the wall with a pen and parchment, but before Jack could call out to him, he was being tackled from the side. He would have tried to struggle, but he recognized the violent red of his attacker, and North was really more of a force of nature than anything. There was no point in struggling, really.

"Congratulations!" North boomed, somewhere back around his left elbow. They were a mess on the floor at this point, but Jack understood the sentiment.

"Thanks," he said flatly, unable to summon up much more with all the wind knocked out of him.

"Yeah, you're a real mate, North. Don't go and kill him now." Jack was relieved to see the paw hovering in his sightline, and he gratefully took it. Aster pulled him to his feet, pointedly leaving North where he was sprawled on the floor even after Jack had let go of his paw.

North struggled to his feet. "Bunny! Truly, I am hurt. I would never hurt such an artist."

Jack took another step back until he felt Aster warm and solid behind him, a little worried that another 'hug' might be forthcoming. "What's that supposed to mean?"

North smiled hugely, arms outstretched. "You, Jack Frost! You are an artist with ice!" He leaned forward and gave Jack an exaggerated wink. "If ever you change your mind, you will be welcome up in the North Pole."

"Changes his mind about what?" Tooth asked, just as Aster scoffed and looped a possessive arm around Jack's chest. "As if."

Jack's head hurt with the noise of it all, somehow more chaotic than the torrent he'd just left, and then somewhere down and to his right, someone was shaking his hand. He looked down.

Standing in front of him, beaming proudly, was a little golden spirit who could only be the Sandman. He glowed with a bright and gentle twinkle, like the stars on a clear night, and his eyes were eager. He gestured wildly at Jack, and several ever-shifting pictures of sand started parading over his head.

"Uh... Nice to meet you?" Jack asked. Honestly, he hadn't really gotten any of that. "I liked your bird."

The other three paused for a moment, almost as if they'd forgotten that Jack was there as they spoke over him.

Again, Sandy beamed. There was a gentle shower of golden snowflakes above his head, then the return of the little golden bird.

"He was, er, he was a bit inspired by the Snowbird thing," Aster said, releasing Jack so he could rub at the back of his neck.

Jack grinned. "It was great. The kids loved it, too."

Sandy clapped his hands, clearly delighted to hear it.

"That's not all the kids loved," Tooth cut in, flitting over to Jack's side. "You should have seen the way they were yelling!"

"Uh, yeah," Jack said, rubbing at the back of his head and trying to ignore the way that the backs of his knuckles brushed against soft fur. "Most of my fans are children." Emma said it was because they were so close in mental ages. He usually stuck his tongue out in retaliation, though, so maybe she wasn't so far off.

"That is good!" North announced, and pulled him from Aster's grasp so he could ruffle his hair. "Nothing is more powerful than the hearts of children!"

Jack laughed, but the sound was soft. "I believe it." There was something about kids and the way their eyes would shine with barely restrained excitement. It made him feel ten feet tall when they looked at him like that, full of the unshakable faith of youth, and he skated with the wind at his feet. Kids were amazing.

Around North's arm, Jack could see Aster shift uncomfortably. He'd tucked his writing supplies away somewhere, god knows where, and now he stood at nervous attention, crossed arms and stilted weight that was almost performative in its defensiveness. Jack could see one of his claws tapping against the fur of the arm it was tucked against, and he wondered if it was a nervous movement. "Aster, you okay?" he asked, ducking beneath North's arms to retake his place at Aster's side.

The grin Aster gave him was false. The other Guardians didn't seem to see it, but Jack did. "Just peachy, mate. You really showed them what for out there," he said, and Jack was smart enough to see that he was changing the subject.

He let him. Jack could feel the eyes of the other Guardians resting on them and for just a moment, Jack wished he could speak that strange, otherworldly tongue that Aster possessed. It would have been a language just for them, and he could have asked him exactly what was bothering him away from prying eyes. But he couldn't, and he didn't. 

Instead, he just pulled off his silver medal and stooped down so Sandy could get a better look at it. He tried to keep up with the ethereal dream sand as it formed shape after shape, and refused to look through its golden sheen at Aster's troubled eyes.

* * *

Aster's expression stayed with him for a while after that, and Jack tried to get his head around it. It wasn't the race that had bothered him. Jack had seen the elation in his eyes as soon as he'd seen the silver medal around his neck, and that joy had been real. Something deep inside him was sure of it. Maybe he was just feeling the same weirdness that Jack was. As much as he was coming to love the other Guardians, it did feel strange to have others intruding on his time alone with Aster. There was an invisible wall there now, built up for the benefit of their friends, and Jack didn't particularly like it.

He was able to push it out of his mind while he was practicing due to long practice, not to mention necessity. But after a particularly grueling practice, Jack pulled his water bottle out of a bag, and a tiny green egg fell out with it. It was the color of grass and of leaves and of fresh, new life. It was the color of Aster's eyes, and it made Jack's throat fill just looking at it. This tiny egg meant something, probably, but Jack didn't know what. Was it an apology, or a thinking-of-you gift? Was it meant to cheer him on, or was there some hidden message? Jack hated not knowing what Aster was thinking. The rabbit had always been somewhat inscrutable, but now he was downright confusing.

Well. His sister did always say that he had to learn to use his words. Jack pulled out one of the many flyers he'd managed to accrue during the games and flipped it over to its blank side. His note was brief, just thanking Aster for the eggs and asking him to meet him after the relay. Alone.

He folded it up and marked the outside with an egg, knowing that Aster would get the implication. Then he went back to work, wondering all the while just how many sets of eyes were really on him as he practiced.

When practice was over, he found an answering note of acquiescence in his bag, and another tiny egg. It was gold this time, the note informed him, for luck. Jack traced Aster's looping handwriting with trembling fingertips and tried to force down his emotions. He didn't have time for those. He had a race to win.

* * *

The first thing Jack noticed when he looked up into the stands was that the signs were different. He squinted at the one closest to him, then skated over to the little girl holding it up. "Hey there," he said, "Whatcha got there?"

The little girl, all red hair and freckles, stared up at him for a second, open-mouthed. Then, "It's a sign! Mommy and I made it last night and it's got a bird and a bunny on it!"

Jack tilted his had to the side. Yes, if he looked at it from this angle, it did sort of look like a rabbit. "Why?"

The girl's eyes went wide and behind him, her mother winced. "Because I was talking to Vasya and he said Kate told him that she was watching the practice yesterday and _she saw it,_ " she said, breathless.

Oh god. "She saw what?" he asked, keeping his voice patient, a little playful. He hadn't gotten this far without learning how to talk to kids.

She learned forward conspiratorially. "She saw him put _eggs_ in your _bag._ "

"The rabbit?" he asked.

Behind her, her mother looked a little flustered. "She uh--Micah thinks you're friends with the Easter Bunny. All the children were talking about it last night, and, well, you know how kids can be."

"Yeah, I know." He flashed the woman an easy grin, and she relaxed a little. He leaned forward on the barrier so he could ruffle Micah's hair. "Sometimes kids just see things that their parents don't. Right, Micah?"

She beamed up at him, and behind her, her mother silently mouthed her thanks. "Yeah! So we all made new signs last night to help cheer you on! You're his snowbird, right? So that one's you," she said, pointing at a vaguely blue blob, "And that one's him!" Then the gray one. "And these are all his eggs! And your medals!"

He bit his lip. "Well, I don't know about 'his' snowbird, but I'll tell you a secret." He leaned in close and dropped his voice. "Mr. Easter Bunny is the one that calls me that."

Micah squeaked in delight and hopped in her seat. "I knew it! Just wait until I tell Vasya!"

"Yeah, yeah." He gave her an apologetic grin. "Look, I gotta go warm up, okay? I have to do my best for Team USA, don't I?"

Micah cheered and held up her sign, bigger than she was, and her mother smiled behind her. "Good luck, Mr. Overland," she said politely.

"Please," Jack said, skating backwards towards his warm up area, "Call me Jack."

As he warmed up, he couldn't help but notice an awful lot of children waving around signs with animals on them. Forget TMZ, these kids had a gossip line that any rag would envy. Still, he thought, grinning a little to himself as he took his place at the starting line, it was nice to be believed in.

He breathed in. He breathed out. And when the start was signaled, he was off like a shot. It was barely organized chaos on the ice, skaters jostling each other and skating their very fastest while still keeping an eye on all their teammates teeming in the center of the ice. But chaotic was the way Jack liked it. The energy was building, and he breathed it in, coaxed it into speed. After the first touch off, they were in the lead.

From the center, Jack kept pace. He glanced up from his teammates only once, and that was hardly his fault; there was a bang in the stands. When he and every child in the stadium raised their eyes to the stands, it was to witness a small golden explosion. Jack wasn't entirely sure which Guardian had gotten too rowdy, but there was no chance to try and figure it out then. Not when it was almost his turn to skate them home.

He'd never actually skated anchor in a major race before, but no one had been able to deny that he'd improved by leaps and bounds since the last world championships. He was the most logical choice for the position, and he wasn't about to let his team down.

He felt the push off. And then he just felt the ice. There was a nagging need inside him, a breathless drive to go, _go_ , ever faster. The pull was so much stronger than the weight of his body, and he sliced through the ice cleanly, just barely skimming the ground to steady himself on each turn. It was exhilarating, it was always exhilarating. But this was more. This was the final event of his first Olympics, and the one that everyone was counting on. The one he was counting on. And he was dizzy with it, the speed and the energy and the barely restrained chaos. It was like waking up from a fever dream. It was like falling in love.

He put his head down, and he skated.

He heard a vague roar from the stands, somewhere beyond the blood rushing in his ears, as he crossed the finish line. He wasn't sure, though, felt oddly out of step with the rest of the skaters. He looked up a the results board, and his entire body flushed hot, burned electric when he saw it. Gold. Team USA had pulled together, pulled it off, pulled off a _gold medal_. But he was the one that had yanked them to a new world record, he was the one that had pulled ahead of the first place team and finished a solid three seconds before the man behind him. He stared up at the board, unseeing.

It wasn't until the rest of the team skated out to him, crushed him between exhausted bodies and enthusiastic claps to the back, that it really sunk in. They'd done it. _He'd_ done it. "Oh my god," he breathed, shaky, and his nearest teammate laughed a little wildly and tugged him in for another bear hug.

He eventually made it off the ice, sparing a second to give Micah (who was screaming herself hoarse, the poor thing) a wave, and was immediately seized upon by the media. It hadn't just been him, he repeated over and over. It had been the team. They laughed and nodded and wrote down something completely different in their books, but he ignored them. He answered the questions almost on automatic, adrenaline pounding in his temples and making him ache, until one of his teammates came to save him, dragging him away to get dressed for the podium.

The _podium._

They stood up there, all together, and Jack finally felt the knife's edge of exhilaration finally start to leave his body. He was left only with bursting pride, a stunned sort of shock, and more happiness than he knew what to do with. He grinned as they slipped the medal over his neck, then waved at the audience. He waved at all the people who'd supported him for so long, especially the children with their ridiculously oversized posterboards. He waved at his family, who was going _insane_ in the stands. And he waved at his new family, who was sending up clouds of sparks and dreamsand and rainbow colored smoke. There was an ecstatic kind of joy filling him up inside, making him smile somewhat manically, and perversely, making him wish that he was already out of the stadium. He had someone he had to see.

* * *

Jack was almost frantic by the time he reached their empty little hallway. There were a hundred people he could share this moment with, but there was only one that he had in mind.

And Aster was there waiting for him, green eyes gleaming with pride and happiness. He opened his mouth to say something, but Jack cut him off with a wild hug, almost throwing himself at him in glee.

Aster didn't go down like he half thought he would, instead catching him with a little 'oof'. Jack took this as permission to stay right where he was, clinging to Aster like some kind of monkey with his arms looped around his neck and his legs tight around his waist. After so many years of speed skating, Jack had thighs to write home about, and he probably could have held himself up with just those. But Aster's arms came down around him, steadying him, and that was good, too.

Aster sucked in a breath and for a second, Jack thought he was about to get bawled out. But then he started to laugh, quiet snickers that shook Jack where he was pressed against his chest. Jack just pulled himself more securely against him and put his nose down into his fur, smiling wide. Things were absolutely perfect. Then Aster leaned his face down just a bit so he could nuzzle behind his ear, breath hot against Jack's neck, and he murmured that word again into his ear, slick and sibilant. _Congratulations._

And then things were more than perfect. Then Jack had a gold medal wrapped around his neck and strong arms wrapped around his waist and so much adrenaline, so much affection running through his veins that he felt like nothing could ever go wrong again. He was invulnerable. He kissed him.

Jack wasn't exactly new to this, but he definitely didn't have enough experience to know what to do with furred lips and a muzzle. But he did the best he could, molding himself against Aster and pressing his lips against his. And then, even as he ran his fingers over Aster's cheekbone and up to the base of his ears, Aster started to kiss back.

Jack was just starting to get the hang of this strange dance, was leaning in for more, when Aster abruptly yanked himself away, fists clenching behind Jack's back. "Jack," he gasped out.

"Mmhmm," Jack agreed, and leaned in again, but this time Aster pulled away.

"Jack, hold on a second."

Jack frowned. He didn't want to hold on to anything except what he was right now. Aster had kissed him, and he wanted more of that. Immediately.

But Aster was shaking his head, clearly distressed. "Jack, are you sure about this? This... Whatever this is, with a Guardian and a human, it'll be complicated," he said, looking miserable. "I've seen the way the other humans look at you. You could make a life with any of them. Surely you don't want an old rabbit like me."

"You have got to be kidding me," Jack said, stroking down over Aster's brow again just to see the way his eyes fluttered. "Of course I want you. I'm pretty sure I've wanted you since I was a teenager."

Jack enjoyed the way Aster's mouth dropped open just a little at that, and the way that he could see him swallow hard. He traced the movement with his eyes, and for the first time ever, he made no effort whatsoever to hide the way he stared.

Aster made a small, helpless noise against him, and this time, when Jack leaned in, Aster met him halfway. There was a desperate edge to his kiss, and the next thing Jack knew, his back was against the wall and Aster was crowded against him, holding him up as he devoured his mouth.

Jack gave as good as he got, pulling Aster in ever closer and kissing him with everything he had. It was a little awkward, what with the angle and the muzzle and the fur, but Jack was more than willing to put up with a little awkwardness if it meant that Aster would keep feeding those soft, desperate little noises into his mouth. When Aster finally pulled away, eyes wild, Jack giggled, the sound hiccuping out of him. "I think this might be the best day of my life."

"So far," Aster retorted, and something dark and unfamiliar flickered in his eyes. "Something tells me you'll have a long time to outdo it."

Jack didn't want to think about that, too happy to think about lifetimes and abbreviated forevers, so he pulled Aster back in, kissed his nose, his brow.

Aster kissed him back, and more besides. He nuzzled his brow and he licked at the corner of his mouth, tongue rough against his lips. He sighed then, their air mingling for just a second, and the sound was resigned, but happy. "You've got your heart set on this, then?" he asked, voice quiet in their empty hallway.

"I've got my heart set on you," he countered, carefully shifting his weight so he could cup the side of his face with one of his hands.

Aster tilted his head into his hand. "Ridiculous," he said, but his voice was thick.

"Mm," he said, an eloquent retort if he'd ever heard one, and he stretched up to maybe kiss him again.

But there was a sound then, faraway as if through water, and they both froze.

"That... sounded like my name," Jack said carefully.

"It might well have been," Aster admitted. "Our magic will dissuade most humans from exploring around here, but if they're looking for you..."

"Shit, the team!" Jack said, and knocked his head back against the wall with a groan. "They're definitely going to want to celebrate."

"And I'm taking you from them," Aster said, looking disgruntled.

"No, I-- Shit." He put his hands against Aster's shoulders to hold himself up even as he reluctantly loosened his hold around Aster's waist. "I have to go."

"Of course you do," Aster said. Jack didn't like the look in his eyes there, disappointment warring with something vulnerable.

"Wait for me?" The words were out before he'd even finished thinking them. He had to go, had responsibilities, but... _Aster._

Aster looked startled, but then he nodded. "I s'pose we have a lot to talk about." He said, and then hesitated. Jack waited for him to spit out whatever he was chewing on, even as he heard his name being called once more. Finally, "Maybe we can do it back at my warren?"

Jack felt his eyes widen to what was probably a comical extent, but he'd never expected--! He nodded eagerly, practically falling over himself to agree. "That would be--that would be perfect, Aster, god. Just let me..." He scrubbed a hand over his face, trying vainly to kick his mind back in gear. "I can probably sneak off after an hour or two. I'll come back then?"

"Right. Right, then," Aster said, starting to look mildly stunned.

Jack tore himself away, did his best to straighten his hair, his clothes. Aster had really done a number on them both. "How do I look?" he asked.

Aster looked him over slowly, from top to bottom, and his eyes darkened slightly. "Well-kissed."

" _Shit._ " Jack was a step closer to Aster before he caught himself, made himself take a step or two backward. He didn't know how he was going to explain his appearance to the rest of the team, but he did know that sneaking in another kiss was just going to lead to another, and another, and next thing he knew he was going to be caught kissing thin air. "Just... wait for me, okay? I'll come back soon, and then I'll be all yours for as long as you want me."

Aster's lips twisted and he looked away. "You can't promise me _that_ , Snowbird."

Jack didn't know exactly what Aster was thinking then, but he had an idea. And that's why, team be damned, he sneaked in one last, lingering kiss. And then he pulled away, lips a firm line. "Just watch me."

Jack finally made himself turn around then, and walked down the hallway. Walking away from Aster was never, ever easy, and was even harder now that they were-- He cut that thought off. He would see Aster in a few hours, and then he would see Aster for a long time after that, would see him again and again, whenever he wanted. Aster was right; this thing between them wasn't going to be easy. But Jack still felt invulnerable. And anything was possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for waiting so long and being so patient. Your kind words have buoyed me through a sometimes painful writing process, and so I truly hope that you've enjoyed this fic.
> 
> Next time, Jack and Aster share the first Easter of the rest of their lives.


	8. Happy Easter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack gives back. Sort of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To everyone who read this fic and stayed with it despite my hiatuses--thank you. I never would have come back to finish this without your support. A lot has happened since I wrote the last official chapter of this fic (not least me finding out _exactly_ what a broken ankle feels like) and again, the epilogue of this chapter is not what I had initially planned it to be. Still, I hope you enjoy this last little slice of their lives. It's a bit of an epilogue and a bit of a side story. I have a lot of ideas about potential side stories, but at this point, I'm not sure how welcome they'd be! Haha.
> 
> Either way, I'm so, so grateful for all your support and your messages and your kind comments. It's meant the world to me. Happy Easter. ♥

He'd heard that it took twenty-one days to form a new habit. Maybe that was why all this felt so strange; Jack had been waiting by the shores of a familiar old pond for six years. Of course spending Easter away from Burgess felt sort of wrong now. It was an itchiness beneath his skin, and a bone-deep longing that had very little to do with how disappointed his mother had been when he'd left for town early Sunday afternoon.

He breathed in deep and let the warm, thick air that pervaded Aster's warren soothe his nerves. This was better than Burgess. The warren was better than just about any place on earth. He could still remember the way his heart had clenched the first time he'd walked in, before relaxing with a double-beat as he took in the sheer beauty of Aster's home.

 

_"So what d'you think?"_

_"Aster, it's--"_

_Aster blew out the breath he'd been holding and gave Jack one of those rare gentle smiles. "She's a beauty, all right."_

 

Of course, that back then had been when Aster had been there. This was the first time Jack had been in the warren alone, which made his heart beat fast in an entirely different way. The rock sentinels had given him sideways glances as he'd arrived through his own special entrance, but they hadn't tried to rough him up or anything.

They didn't know he was there without permission.

Sure, Aster had issued a blanket invitation once, but Jack had a feeling he hadn't meant when Jack was 100% positive he wasn't home. Plus, well, Aster said a lot of things when he was nuzzling Jack's neck like that. He probably didn't mean all of them. (Probably.)

It wasn't as if he was in there for any nefarious purposes. He just... He missed him. Aster had disappeared a good two weeks before Easter, murmuring apologies and promises against Jack's lips as he went, and it was amazing how two weeks could feel like two years after more than a month of being spoiled with almost daily visits. Besides, he remembered the way Aster looked at the end of the holiday season. It was exhaustion, tip to tail, and as endearing as Jack found his sleepy smile, he hated seeing his tired eyes. 

So maybe--well, maybe this year he could do a little to help. Wanting to help wasn't a crime, was it? No, it wasn't, though the breaking and entering was a little more questionable.

Now all he had to do was wait for Aster. _His_ Aster, he thought to himself, and was glad that no one was around to see how foolishly pleased he looked at the thought. It wouldn't be long now, most likely. Aster would probably find the note he'd left for him any minute. Jack may not have been keeping their annual date, but that didn't mean he'd forgotten for a second when it was.

Sure enough, a few minutes later Jack heard the telltale thunder of paws on dirt, and Jack couldn't help but snicker to himself at the wary look on Aster's face as he stepped out of one of the warren's many caverns. "Jack?"

Jack had a feeling that it was just the exhaustion that prevented Aster from immediately knowing where he was, but he still felt a private little moment of triumph as he peeled himself away from the tree he'd been leaning against. Twelve years later and he was finally able to get the drop on the Easter Bunny. "Yeah?"

Aster's ears flicked his way a split second before he turned. "What's the caper, Snowbird?" he asked, and Jack almost laughed at the pinch of his lips.

"Not much," he admitted, and he stepped closer so he could take Aster's paws in his hands and give them a squeeze.

"That grin of yours says otherwise," Aster grumbled, but Jack was pleased to see the wariness in his eyes go begrudgingly gentle.

Jack stood up on his toes so he could press his lips to Aster's in a quick kiss, then nuzzled his nose against the side of Aster's; he'd learned very quickly how effective nuzzling was against a pooka. "Nothing bad, anyway."

Aster sighed against his lips. "Then what is all this?" he asked even as he disentangled his fingers from Jack's so he could wrap his arms around his waist.

"You're tired," Jack said simply, stretching up so he could press a kiss just below one of Aster's eyes, and he felt Aster shudder against him. "You always are on Easter."

"Still not sure what that has to do with you being down here instead of--" He paused, but was only momentarily distracted by Jack's lips on his, and made his recovery only a few seconds later. "Instead of up there."

"I dunno," Jack said, using his newly freed arms to cling closer, one around Aster's neck and another against his chest as Jack laid his head against his shoulder. "I just thought maybe you wouldn't want to come home to an empty warren this year."

Jack felt the way Aster's chest rose as he sucked in a quick, surprised breath. "Is that what you thought?"

Jack turned his nose into Aster's coat and breathed in the scent of him, dye and flowers and warm sunshine, for just a moment before pulling away just enough to look him in the eye. "Was I wrong?" he asked.

Aster's eyes were as soft as Jack had ever seen them, years of walls and self-protection finally being swept away like so many cobwebs. His embrace didn't falter, and within it, Jack shivered.

Then, finally, "Nah." Aster leaned down so he could press his forehead against Jack's, and not even their stupid height difference could make the moment awkward. "You've got everyone fooled, don't you?"

Jack smiled, and he didn't even care that he probably looked a bit brainless at the moment. "Yep. What are you talking about?"

Aster sniggered, and Jack grinned a little wider at the sheer dweebiness of it. "All those humans out there, they see the way you skate and the way you smile for the cameras, and they think you're some kind of daredevil," he said.

Jack snorted. "Yeah, like the kind that might fall into a pond or something," he threw in.

"If only they knew, eh?" Aster said. "What would they say if they saw the famous Jack Frost hiding behind trees so he could play nursemaid to an old rabbit?"

Jack quirked an eyebrow. "Um, 'aaaah, the Easter Bunny is real'?" And huge and dangerous and sweet and dorky and almost unbearably hot, for that matter.

Aster blinked at him for a second, and then lowered his head so his brow rested against Jack's shoulder as he shook with silent laughter. "Cheek."

Jack ran his fingers through the fur on Aster's back, grinning when he heard the beginnings of a purr in Aster's chest in response. "And you love it."

Aster raised his head again, and Jack could see the laughter in his eyes. It looked good on him. "So help me, I do," he said, shaking his head.

A part of Jack wanted to ask then, wanted to ask if there was anything more than that Aster loved, but he wisely kept his mouth shut. Wouldn't want his boyfriend to rabbit or anything. Instead he pulled Aster in for another kiss, then another. "You know," he said as casually as he could against Aster's mouth, "No one's expecting me topside until tomorrow evening."

It was true. As far as his family was concerned, Jack was already most of the way home. He hadn't exactly told his teammates the same thing, though, and the weekend bag he currently had stashed in Aster's kitchen spoke to that.

Aster stiffened against him, then pulled him even closer. "That so, Snowbird?" he asked, and Jack couldn't help but laugh at the practiced casualness of it.

"Mmhmm. So I thought maybe I could have dinner with my boyfriend," he said, shoving down the little bubble of happiness that seemed to expand every time he said that dumb word out loud, "And maybe tuck him into bed."

"Because he's so tired," Aster said archly.

Jack buried his fingers into Aster's fur and beamed at him. "Exactly."

* * *

Truthfully, Aster _had_ been tired. By the time Jack had gotten some food into him and they'd made their way to the bedroom, he was half asleep on his feet. He'd roused himself just enough for sleepy makeouts, but he'd drifted off to sleep with his mouth still pressed up against Jack's collar. Not that Jack minded. Aster liked to go slowly, and he supposed that with a few millennia under his belt, that made sense. And in the meantime, Jack got to wake up pressed all up against Aster for the first time.

It was sort of like having the softest, warmest blanket in the world wrapped up all around you. A breathing blanket. That Jack was totally gone for. He shook his head at his own drowsy thoughts and stayed there, curled up beneath one of Aster's arms until he got too stir crazy to stay there for even a minute longer.

Aster slept for a long time, and admittedly, it wasn't too surprising. What was it that Aster had told him once? 190 countries and two billion children?

Jack let him sleep.

It was midday by the time Aster finally stumbled out of his bedroom and into the kitchen where Jack sat playing with his phone. It wasn't as if he could get reception down here (go figure) but that didn't mean he couldn't play mindless games to pass the time.

"Jack?"

Jack grinned. He sounded cute like that, all heavy with sleep. "Right here."

Aster perked up a little after a cup of tea or two. Strong tea. He started to look a little more sentient, at least.

When Aster finally started to look mostly conscious, Jack cleared his throat.

Aster just looked at him, brow raised.

"You know," Jack said. "Yesterday was Easter."

The look Aster gave him was distinctly unimpressed. "Yes, Jack, I had noticed that."

"Don't you give out eggs or something on Easter?" Jack asked, playfully bumping Aster's ankle's with one of his feet beneath the table.

Aster stilled. "Bloody hell, I almost forgot--" he said, and started to scoot his chair back from the table.

"No, no, sit," Jack said, pushing his own chair back. "I'm sure whatever insanely beautiful thing you spent the past two weeks on can wait."

"Oh?" Aster asked, voice instantly going slow and a little suspicious.

Jack grinned his most beatific and obnoxious smile. "Yep. Because this year, I made something for you."

To Jack's _great_ satisfaction, Aster's mouth actually dropped open. "Excuse me?"

"I made you an egg," Jack said, getting up so he could dig through the duffel bag he'd laid against the wall. "I mean, you make millions of eggs every year, but how often do you get them?"

"Never," Aster said. "But--"

"Exactly," Jack said, cutting him off and straightening up with his prize in his hands. "And the way I see it, I owe you... like a lot of eggs by now."

"Jack," Aster said quietly.

"Especially because, I mean, let's be real. I'm not exactly Picasso. You're not going to get any magic eggs out of me," Jack continued even as he came back to the table.

" _Jack._ "

Jack swallowed. "Yeah?"

"Give me the egg."

Jack looked down at his cupped hands. All jokes aside, it really was an ugly little egg. He'd looked up how to hollow out an egg the way Aster had online, but the holes on his eggs had all come out huge and jagged, not almost invisible like Aster's had been. The paint, too, was gloppy and inexpertly applied. But Jack had gone through an entire carton of eggs, and the result was...

He swallowed, and dropped the egg in Aster's waiting paws. "Like I said, it's kind of... I mean, it's--"

"Is this a rabbit?" Aster asked as he squinted at the egg and turned it over in his paws.

"Uh. It was supposed to be?"

This had seemed like a very romantic gesture in Jack's head. Now that it was playing out, though, he realized how it must seem, giving an egg to the goddamn Easter Bunny. "I know it's ugly, but--"

"It's perfect."

The relief that rushed through Jack was dizzying, tempered as it was with disbelief. Maybe that was why he said it. "God, love really is blind, isn't it?"

To his surprise, Aster laughed. It wasn't one of his little sniggers, or even the chuckles that Jack had gotten used to. It was a belly laugh, deep and rich and delightful, and Jack felt himself flush. "Maybe it is," Aster said, and then as if he hadn't said anything that made Jack's heart beat in double time and the floor open up beneath his feet, "But I still like it."

Jack supposed he must have looked sort of stunned, because the next thing he knew, Aster was grinning at him and nudging his own foot against Jack's. "You'll get better with practice."

Jack felt the answering grin on his face before he even realized it was coming, and he reached out so he could take Aster's paw across the table. "Well, like I said. I have a lot of eggs to make up for," he said, and then, letting a sly edge into his voice, "It might take years."

He saw something flicker in Aster's eyes, and for a moment Jack thought that maybe he'd gone too far, pushed too hard, but then Aster squeezed his hand in an almost bruising grip. "I dunno, mate. With googs at this level, it might take a lifetime," he said. He said it lightly, but Jack was no stranger to Aster's voice. After all, he'd been dreaming about it for over a decade. He heard the infinitesimal tremble.

They hadn't spoken about lifetimes, not since that day when they'd first gotten together. Jack had skirted around the subject, knowing it was a sore spot for Aster. But did Aster seriously think Jack would say no to an offer like that? Jack didn't know exactly how long his life was going to be, but he knew that he wanted to devote every bit of the rest of it to Aster. He'd been gone from the minute strong limbs had pulled him from icy water, and from the moment, five years later, when Aster's green eyes had met his.

He ran his thumb along Aster's knuckles, and breathed a little easier as the death grip gentled. "Guess there's no help for it, huh? I'll just have to keep showing up here for as long as I can." He shot Aster a brief smile. "You'll probably get sick of me."

Aster looked down at the clumsy little egg in his other paw, twirling it between his fingers and gazing at it like it contained the secret to the universe. "Not much chance of that, I'm afraid. I think you're stuck with me, Snowbird."

Jack could see it. He could see a dozen Easters, a lifetime of Easters, stretching out in front of them. He could see beautiful eggs and amateurish ones, sleepless nights and morning kisses, smiles and tears and an emotion that he could only call love. The sight was enough to make the back of his eyes sting and his throat grow thick.

This was the first morning of the rest of their lives, and there would be a thousand more to come.

When Jack finally smiled back at Aster, and it was far gentler, far more real than he thought a smile even could be. "Good."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (the end)
> 
> Thank you so much for reading to the end of this monster, and I genuinely hope you enjoyed it. If you'd like to talk more about this 'verse or any of my others, please feel free to send me a message @ melissae-astron.tumblr.com.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed. :)


End file.
